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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 





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THE FRENCH 
NVASION OF IRELAND IN '98 

LEAyES OF UNWRITTEN HISTORY 

THAT TELL OF AN 

HEROIC ENDEAVOR 

AND A 

LOST OPPORTUNITY 

TO THROW OFF ENGLAND'S YOKE 



d VALERIAN GRIBAY^DOFF '^ cop^righ^ ^vS-^. 

>n ./ \ OCT 24 '390' /^ 






WITH A MAP, AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
WELL-KNOWN ARTISTS 



NEW YORK 
CHARLES P. SOMERBY 

23 Lafayettk Place 






a^"^ 



Copyright, 1890, 
By V. GRIBAY£D0FF, 



THE LIBRARY 
or CONGRESS 

WASHINOTON 



CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

List of Illustrations . 5 

Authorities 7 

Preface 9 

CHAPTER I. 

The Events leading up to a French Invasion of Ireland — Several 
Preliminary Attempts at an Invasion — Intrigues of the League 
of United Irishmen — Outbreak of the Insurrection 15 

CHAPTER 11. 

Humbert lands in Killala with a Thousand Men — Career of the 
Hero and Composition of his Army — Bishop Stock's Testi- 
mony to the Invaders 26 

CHAPTER HI. 

A Proclamation to the Irish People — Astonishment of the In- 
vaders at the Religious Zeal of their Irish Allies — Peculiar 
Position of the Irish Clergy — Their Intolerance rebuked by 
the French 49 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Field of Operations — Morale of the English Forces — An 
Engagement near Ballina — Episodes at the Capture of that 
Town 61 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

PAGE 

The Theatre of Operations — Weary March of the French and 
Irish — Scenes in Castlebar — The Battle — Panic and Flight of 
the British 73 

CHAPTER VI. 

A Disgraceful Incident — Losses on Both Sides — The French 
indulge in the Pleasures of Music and Dancing — General 
Results of the Battle — A Republican Government for Con- 
naught 100 

CHAPTER VII. 

Humbert resumes Operations in the Field — The British Plan of 
Campaign — Battle of Colooney — Battle and Surrender at 
Ballinamuck — Case of Bartholomew Teeling . . 114 

CHAPTER Vni. 

A Second Battle of Castlebar — Defeat of the Insurgents — The 
Three French Officers left at Killala — Their Efforts to sup- 
press Religious Persecution — Riot and Lawlessness the Order 
of the Day — Advance of the Royal Armies — Battle of 
Killala 144 

CHAPTER IX. 

Humbert's Career subsequent to his Return from Ireland — His 
Part in the Campaign against the Austrians, and the Expedi- 
tion to San Domingo — His Love Intrigue with Pauline Bona- 
parte — Escape to America — Present at the Battle of New 
Orleans — Expedition to Mexico i75 

Appendix 185 

Index 189 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Castlebar Drawn by Harry Ogden. . Frontispiece. 

OPP. 
DRAWN BY PACE 

Arrival of the French Vessels Edw. Siebert 29 

Portrait of General Sarrazin V. Gribay/doff. 45 

Portrait of Marquis of Cornwallis. . F. Gribay/doff. . . . . 61 

Sarrazin Embraces a Patriot's Corpse. .Edw. Siebert 67 

The March to Castlebar IV. C. Fitler 72 

Portrait of General Hutchinson ^■^. G>ibay/doff 84 

Lake's Flight from Castlebar Baron C. de Grimm. 98 

The Ball after the Battle Tho?nas Mclhmine. 105 

Map of Connaught i r6 

Portrait of Colonel Charles Vereker. . Comerford. 123 

Retreat of the French Edw. Siebert 129 

The Gory Heights of Ballinamuck Charles Graham . . . 136 

The Battle of Killala Edw. Siebert 160 



AUTHORITIES. 

Dublin Penny Jotirnal. Dublin, 1833-34. 

History of the Rebellion in Ireland. Rev. J. Gordon. London, 
1801. 

Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation. Sir Jonah Barrington, 
1815. 

Memoirs of the Rebellion in Irelattd. Sir R. MUSGRAVE. Dublin, 
iSoi. 

An Historical Review of the State of Irelattd. FRANCIS Plowden. 
Dublin, 1805. 

Jottes' Narrative of the Itistirrection in Connaught. Reprint. 
Carlisle, Pa., 1805. 

General Humberts Official Reports to the Directory attd the Marine 
Minister, 1798. Archives de France. 

Le Moniteur General. An vi. and vii. 

Reports and Letters of Generals Lake, Trench, and Hutchinsott. 
1798. 

A Narrative of What Passed at Killala. By an Eye-witness. 
London, 1800. 

Notice Historiqiie de la Dt'scetite des Fratt^ais eti Irlande. L. O. 
Fontaine. Paris, 1801. 

Persotial Narrative of the Irish Rebellion. C- H. Teeling. Bel. 
fast, 1832. 

Saunders' Newsletter atid Daily Advertiser. Dublin, 1798. 

Parochial Survey of Irelattd. M. W. Monk. Dublin, 1814. 

Topographical Dictr. of Ireland. S. Lewis. London, 1837. 

Pieces of Irish History. W. J. McNevin. New York, 1807. 



8 A UTHORITIES. 

Dissertations on the History of Ireland. C. O'Connor. Dublin, 
1812. 

Nouvelle Biographie Universelle. DiDOT. Paris, 1852. 

Biographie Universelle. MiCHAUD. Paris, 1843. 

A New Biographical Dictionary. H. J. Rose. London, 1848. 

Correspondence of the Marquis of Comwallis. London, 1859. 

Resumen Histotico de la Insurreccion de Nueva Espagna, desde su 
origen hasta el desefnbarco del Senor E. X. de Mina. Mexico, 1821. 

Annuaire N/crologique. Mahul. Annee, 1823. 

Thiers' History of the First Consulate and Empire. 
Views of South America atid Mexico. New York, 1826. 



PREFACE. 

The present volume is an effort to rescue from 
comparative oblivion one of the many extraordinary 
episodes of the great French revolutionary war. 
Cortez and Pizarro, and scores of minor conquerors 
— nay, even buccaneers like Morgan — have found 
their panegyrists, but on the subject of General 
Humbert's descent upon Ireland in 1798 history is 
almost silent. Scarcely more than two years ago an 
English general — if I mistake not, Lord Wolseley — 
in a public speech referred to the " glorious fact that 
the United Kingdom had not been insulted by the 
presence of an armed invader since the days of Will- 
iam the Conqueror." The speaker's ignorance was 
excusable, seeing that the majority of English his- 
tories barely mention Humbert's name. None of 
them do justice to the magnitude of his achieve- 
ments, or recount, in a manner worthy of the sub- 
ject, the exploits which carried his small army to 
the very heart of Ireland. 

Maxwell, in his History of the Irish Rebellion, ren- 
dered famous by a set of Cruikshank's illustrations, 



lO PREFA CE. 

devotes one and a half chapters to the story of the 
expedition ; but his narrative, being exclusively 
based on the official reports and the extremely par- 
tial account of the Tory writer, Sir Richard Mus- 
grave (Dublin, 1801), the result is anything but sat- 
isfactory from a strictly historical point of view. For 
a similar reason does Mr. Froude's version of Hum- 
bert's descent, as contained in his recently published 
History of Ireland, prove .superficial and inaccurate. 
Nor has the hardy Frenchman received better treat- 
ment from his own countrymen. Thiers dismisses 
him with six lines, and Guizot with the words: "A 
French invasion under command of General Hum- 
bert for^ a time gained some successes, owing to 
the incapacity or connivance of the Irish militia, 
but it was soon repulsed." 

Two years of research, involving an examina- 
tion of musty records and archives that have lain 
untouched in the British Museum and the Biblio- 
theque de France for almost a century, have con- 
vinced me that I am dealing with a case of histori- 
cal oversight. Had Humbert's expedition not taken 
place at a period when the attention of Europe was 
riveted by Bonaparte and his schemes of Oriental 
conquest, the episode would doubtless have figured 
in history side by side with the " Bridge of Areola," 
the passage of the St. Bernhard, the " Charge of the 
Light Brigade," and other popular traditions. 



PREFACE. II 

For what, in brief, were the circumstances under 
which the French landed in Ireland ? Their entire 
strength fell short of i,ioo men of all arms, and 
on the day of their arrival at Killala the country 
was occupied by 150,000 English troops, thoroughly 
prepared for every emergency. For three weeks 
the invader held his own in the face of every dif^- 
culty, defeated several forces in the field — one, 
at the lowest computation, being seven or eight 
times his superior in size — conquered an entire prov- 
ince, and only surrendered to overwhelming odds 
after out-manoeuvring the British commanders dur- 
ing an unremitting march of a week's duration. 
The French by that time had penetrated 150 miles 
into the interior of the country. As will be fully 
shown, Humbert's action was less quixotic than ap- 
pears at first sight. An unfortunate delay of a few 
hours prevented his junction with a large body of 
Irish insurgents. Had he accomplished his purpose 
the road to Dublin would have been thrown open 
to him, and the history of Ireland might have been 
changed. 

A word is perhaps apposite regarding several of 
the authorities I have consulted, a list of which 
will be found on pages 7 and 8. It is a habit of all 
chroniclers of the events of '98 who take the anti- 
English view to treat Sir Richard Musgrave's Me- 
moirs as utterly unreliable. Musgrave, as a Tory 



12 PREFACE. 

member of the Irish Parliament and an opponent 
of CathoHc emancipation, naturally allowed his par- 
tisan prejudices and religious convictions to color 
his writings. These teem with invective and de- 
nunciation against the rebels and the Catholic 
clergy. Nevertheless, a comparison of the Me- 
moirs with other contemporaneous works on the 
rebellion — even those of pro-Irish writers — fails, in 
my opinion, to reveal any deliberate instance of 
mendacity or fabrication on his part. By reason 
of his connection with the government he had 
access to many channels of information closed to 
the ordinary citizen, and in his copious appendix 
will be found copies of the numerous sworn depo- 
sitions upon which his charges against the rebels 
are based. Musgrave's principal sin is one of omis- 
sion rather than commission, for he is ever careful 
to pass over in silence the cruelties committed in 
the name of the king and the constitution. All 
of which being the case, it is fair to assume that 
his narrative, shorn of its animadversions, deserves 
some consideration as an historical record. With 
all its faults, it helps to throw much light on the 
events of the day, and I have not hesitated to refer 
to it very frequently. 

My most valuable authorities are a small work 
entitled, Jones Narrative of the Insurrection in 
Connaught, of which a reprint was published in 



PREFACE. 13 

Carlisle, Pa., in 1805,' and Louis Octave Fontaine's 
Notice Historique dc la Descente dcs Franqais en 
Irlande (Paris, 1801). The first-named book con- 
tains the narrations of several participants — active 
and passive — in those stormy events. Their style 
is simple but eloquent, and often dramatically de- 
scriptive. The absence of all striving for effect and 
partisan motive seems to stamp them with the seal 
of truth. On the merits of Fontaine's account I 
will not dwell at this stage, as a reference to the 
author is introduced into the story. As far as my 
personal investigations go, neither of these works 
has been previously consulted by any writer on the 
rebellion, and, in fact, it is a question whether more 
than one or two copies of them are now in exist- 
ence. 

For picturesque quality the French invasion of 
Ireland will stand comparison with the conquest of 
Mexico by Cortez. To Americans, in particular, 
the interest in the event will be enhanced by the 
tact that the hero died an American citizen on 
American soil, after gallantly serving his adopted 
country during the war of 1812. But apart from 
these considerations the story of Humbert's adven- 
ture points a moral that, amidst republican institu- 
tions like ours, will not fail to receive appreciation. 
It shows, on the one hand, the elevating influence 

' A copy of this very rare work is in the author's possession. 



14 PREFACE. 

of newly acquired liberties on a race ground down 
by centuries of feudalism and monarchical oppres- 
sion, and, on the other, the debasing effects of relig- 
ious and political intolerance both on the tyrant 
and his victim. For this reason mainly have I ven- 
tured on a domain that properly belongs to the 
military writer. 

The Author, 
New York, April 75, iSqo. 



THE FRENCH INVASION OF 
IRELAND IN '98. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Events leading up to a French Invasion of Ireland — Several 
Preliminary Attempts at an Invasion — Intrigues of the League 
of United Irishmen — Outbreak of the Insurrection. 



BbS^ 



9^y^o 



^':ir 



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Tj HE echoes of America's 
glorious revolution shook 
^ the old monarchies of Eu- 
(«„ rope almost to their foun- 
dations. That of France 
uTo^/B^^fPo^l^ soon succumbed to its ef- 
fects. The year 1789 saw 
the abolition of the ancient 
regime^ with its manifold abuses, and 
the dawn of a new independence that 

To what 



promised great things for the Old World 
extent these prospects were marred by the excesses 
of demagogues and the mad infatuation of the mul- 
titude, history has suf^ciently informed us ; but 
there is no exaggeration in saying that with all the 



1 6 THE FRENCH INVASION 

follies and crimes that marked its progress, that 
was the grandest epoch in France's history as a 
nation when five hundred thousand of her sons, ill- 
clad, half-starved and poorly drilled, faced the 
coalition of monarchical Europe in defence of their 
mother country and the republican idea. The 
watchword, " la patrie en danger^' and the strains 
of Rouget de Lisle's inspiring battle hymn, made 
heroes out of the commonest clay. Men who had 
never smelled powder in their lives marched with 
light heart and steady tread against the well-disci- 
plined foe. On the northern frontier it was the 
English and Austrians, on the western the Prus- 
sians, on the southern the Spaniards, who heard 
their ringing battle-cry and felt the prick of their 
cold steel. These ragged, unkempt Sans-ciilottes, 
not satisfied with hurling the enemy back over the 
frontiers, followed him into his own country. They 
overran the Rhine province and Belgium, and in 
the depth of winter crossed the frozen Dutch 
canals, driving the British before them like chaff ; 
and, for the first time in the history of the world, a 
troop of cavalry captured a large fleet of powerful 
men-of-war, caught fast in the ice. 

But notwithstanding her numerous successes on 
the field of battle, the odds continued to be enor- 
mously against the young republic. England's 
maritime power was making itself felt in an alarm- 
ing degree. A cordon of British men-of-war, ex- 
tending from Dunkirk to La Rochelle, and also the 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 1 7 

entire length of the Mediterranean seaboard, kept 
up an effectual blockade of every large port and 
deprived the French of their only means of replen- 
ishing a well-nigh exhausted exchequer. Every 
attempt to break the cordon, or even run the 
blockade, met with disaster, for, with all their 
bravery and devotion, the sailors of the republic 
were no match for the " tars of Old England." In- 
ferior seamanship and lack of discipline, in fact, had 
resulted in an almost complete annihilation of the 
French navy. 

In this dilemma the attention of the French 
Directory was turned toward Ireland as a potential 
ally. The story of Ireland's wrongs is a hackneyed 
theme nowadays, especially in America, and for 
that reason it has ceased to interest the majority of 
people. The writer must therefore be pardoned 
for indulging in a little sentiment anent the condi- 
tion of that unhappy island, a prey alike to the ex- 
actions of the oppressor and the conflicting pas- 
sions of the oppressed. Whatever may be said in 
extenuation of British methods in Ireland at the 
present time, testimony is not lacking to show that 
at the conclusion of the last century her grievances 
were numerous enough to justify the spirit of dis- 
content which France found it to her interest to 
foster. The elective franchise was denied to all 
Catholics, and in consequence the major portion of 
the population were rendered indifferent to sup- 
porting laws in whose making they had no partici- 



15 THE FRENCH INVASION 

pation, and which neither benefited nor protected 
them. Protestations on the part of the disfran- 
chised, accompanied too often by acts of lawless- 
ness, only elicited the most stringent coercive meas- 
ures ; and at last there reigned a period of terror 
throughout the country which almost recalled the 
martyrdom of the Spanish Netherlands under Alva's 
bloody ri'givie. The people in whole districts were 
required to remain within their houses from sunset 
to sunrise, and, to insure their doing so, visits were 
paid them during the hours of darkness. Woe be- 
tide the unfortunate man who had absented him- 
self. He often returned to find his home in ashes. 
Nay, more — cases are known of persons merely 
suspected of treasonable offences being dragged 
from their beds, and, without the formalities of a 
trial or an effort to secure proof, being shot in cold 
blood or doomed to a lingering death amid the 
pestilential horrors of the prison ships. The in- 
famous Insurrection Act provided the death pen- 
alty for all who even afifiliated with secret societies ; 
but, far from crushing the spirit of the patriots, 
who had organized themselves into the formidable 
"Order of United Irishmen," it served to bring 
them to a full realization of their desperate straits, 
and to brace their nerves for a final effort to throw 
off the galling yoke.' 

' That the above statements are wholly unexaggerated may be 
gathered from the debates in the British House of Lords, November 
22, 1797, on a motion by Lord Moira to petition his Majesty for the 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 1 9 

As a natural result, the overtures of the French 
Directory for an alliance were eagerly accepted by 
the Executive Council of the Order, but with the 
express stipulation that no French invading army 
should exceed ten thou'^and men, and that Ireland, 
after her liberation, should be left free to enact her 
own laws and adopt her own form of government 
without foreign interference. The Directory hav- 
ing pledged its faith to these conditions, an arma- 
ment was soon after equipped from the port of 
Brest under the command of General Lazare 

intervention of the Crown in the affairs of Ireland. " My Lords," 
declared the speaker, "I have seen in Ireland the most absurd as 
well as the most disgusting tyranny that any nation ever groaned 
under. There is not one man, my Lords, in Ireland, who is not 
liable to be taken out of his house at any hour, either of the day or 
night, to be kept in rigorous confinement, restricted from all corre- 
spondence with the persons who have the management of his affairs, 
be treated with mixed severity and insult, and yet never know the 
crime with which he is charged, nor the source from whence the in- 
formation against him proceeded. Your Lordships have, hitherto, 
detested the Inquisition. In what did that horrible institution differ 
from the system pursued in Ireland? Men, indeed, have not been 
put to the rack in Ireland, because that horrible engine was not at 
hand. But I do know instances of men being picketed in Ireland 
till they fainted ; when they recovered, picketed again till they 
fainted ; recovered again, and again picketed till they fainted a 
third time ; and this in order to extort from the tortured sufferers a 
confession, either of their own guilt, or of the guilt of their neigh- 
bors. But I can even go farther : men have been half hanged and 
then brought to life, in order, by fear of having that punishment re- 
peated, to induce them to confess the crimes with which they have 
been charged. . . He who states these things should be pre- 

pared with proofs. I am prepared with them." . . . 



20 THE FRENCH INVASION 

Hoche, the hero of Weissenberg and Quiberon, 
and without contradiction one of the most promis- 
ing leaders of the repubhcan armies. Not yet 
thirty years of age, a man of keen insight, cool de- 
liberation and iron will, ardently attached to demo- 
cratic institutions, but withal averse to the acts of 
savagery that had attended their introduction into 
his own country, he seemed moulded by destiny for 
a great and glorious career. The liberation of Ire- 
land, it should be added, had been his dream ; he 
had urged it on the members of the Directory ; he 
had dilated on it to his companions-in-arms. He 
based his argument on sentimental as well as politi- 
cal grounds. Ireland, he averred, that had supplied 
so many brave regiments to the armies of France, 
should be allowed to reap the benefits of the new 
republican era. The French armament, consisting 
of a fleet of 43 sail, carrying an army of 15,000 
men and 40,000 stands of arms, also a formidable 
train of field artillery and heavy cannon, started 
from Brest in the month of December, 1796, and 
made for Bantry Bay, in the south of Ireland. 
Had this imposing force effected a landing, the re- 
sult may be easily conjectured. How inadequate 
were England's preparations for her defence is evi- 
dent from what occurred when the French did land 
> ighteen months later. Sufifice it to say that the 
special providence which, for good or for evil, has 
guarded England's shores since the day that the 
Spanish Armada went to pieces amid the waves of 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. ^1 

the English Channel, once more interposed, and 
after encountering one storm after the other, and 
failing entirely in the attempt to approach the Irish 
shore, the French fleet, somewhat battered, but 
without any material loss, returned to its moorings 
in the harbor of Brest. 

The failure of the Bantry Bay expedition, while 
it proved a damper on the immediate hopes of the 
United Irishmen, in no manner discouraged them. 
Their emissaries in France continued to urge a re- 
newal of the attempt, and pointed out the growing 
strength and cohesion of the brotherhood, with its 
ramifications extending to the remotest village in 
the land. Their efforts were partially successful, 
for in the following June the Batavian Republic, at 
the instance of the French Government, undertook 
to equip an armament for the purpose of carrying 
out General Hoche's project. Despite the reduced 
condition of her exchequer and the disorder in her 
military and naval departments, Holland was soon 
able to collect at the Texel sixteen sail of the line 
and a number of frigates, under the command of 
Admiral De Winter, with a landing force of thir- 
teen thousand men, led by the intrepid Daendels, 
Commander-in-chief of the Batavian Army. This 
force practically constituted the entire disposable 
strength of the nation, and the willingness of the 
latter to devote it to the liberation of a suffering 
sister has been cited by enthusiasts as a case of 
national self-sacrifice, unprecedented in modern his- 



22 THE FRENCH INVASION 

tory. Expectations in Ireland ran high, and many 
longing eyes were directed toward the coast. But 
the patriots were doomed to fresh disappointment. 
Weeks and months passed and the sail of the 
deliverer appeared not. Again had the elements 
interposed themselves in England's favor. All at- 
tempts to leave the Texel had been frustrated by 
contrary winds, and after lying inactive for two 
months the troops were disembarked, owing to a 
scarcity of provisions, and the entire project was 
abandoned.' 

Almost simultaneously with the failure of the 
Batavian expedition came the news to the Irish 
Union of the death of General Hoche, their staunch 
friend, and the expulsion of Carnot, the able or- 
ganizer of the Bantry Bay expedition, from the 
French Directory — and the realization of the United 
Irishmen's dream seemed further off than ever ! 
At this juncture, however, their hopes were again 
revived by the sudden conclusion of peace between 
France and Austria, and the private assurance of 
the Directory to the Union's emissaries that a fresh 
effort in the direction of securing Ireland's inde- 
pendence would shortly be made. This informa- 
tion, while giving confidence to the mass of the 
brotherhood, was also the means of restraining their 
impetuosity, which, had it taken the form of a pre- 

' This Dutch fleet fell a prey to Lord Duncan and his heavy 
" seventy-fours," in the memorable action off Camperdown, October 
II, 1797. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 23 

mature outbreak, would have worked lasting injury 
to the cause. The spring of 1798 was the time set 
for the fulfilment of the Directory's promise, and 
to Bonaparte, the savior of Toulon and conqueror 
of Italy, was to be given the command of the new 
expeditionary army. 

For the third time the British Government was 
filled with alarm, and the United Irishmen rejoiced. 
Every Briton capable of bearing arms was called 
upon by his sovereign to aid in the country's de- 
fence. The arsenals and ship-yards bustled with a 
feverish activity, and the well-fed shopkeepers and 
landed proprietors trembled for their homes and 
money-bags. But for a third time Fate was kind to 
Great Britain. Bonaparte was thinking of nothing 
so prosaic as a campaign amidst Irish bogs. His 
vivid Latin imagination had conjured up dreams of 
Oriental splendor. The entire East with its fasci- 
nating associations — in the foreground Egypt with 
her pyramids and sphinxes, then Palestine and 
Syria with their ancient ruins, and beyond that 
Hindustan with her untold wealth — these were the 
realms that seduced his fancy, and thither he sailed 
with the finest armament France had equipped in 
many a year ! 

The wail of disappointment and desperation that 
went up from Irish throats as the French fleet 
started for Egypt could scarcely fail to impress the 
British rulers, and to prepare them for coming 
events. Another circumstance tended to still fur- 



^4 THE FRENCH INVASION 

ther open their eyes. Through the medium of its 
spies the British Government discovered that emis- 
saries of the Irish Union had deliberately thwarted 
the negotiations for peace opened at Lille by Lord 
Malmesbury, the English ambassador. These men 
were found to be in intimate association with the 
chiefs of the French Army, including Bernadotte, 
Dessaix and Kilmaine, whose influence they used 
to effect the rejection of all British overtures. The 
presentation of the above facts in the Irish House 
of Peers by the Lord Chancellor himself only 
tended to accentuate the crisis. The policy of co- 
ercion was followed up with redoubled vigor, the 
object of the ministry — as has been charged — being 
to drive the nation into armed rebellion, which 
would serve as a pretext for depriving it of its last 
vestige of independence. The plan, if such an one 
was intended, succeeded only too well. Goaded on 
by the arbitrary acts of the military leaders, who, 
without the slightest authority of law, took it upon 
themselves to supersede the ordinary tribunals of 
justice and to try by court-martial citizens accused 
of mere civil offences, the members of the League 
at last threw off all restraint, and in the month of 
May, 1798, broke out in open rebellion, first in the 
neighborhood of Dublin, then in Kildare, Wexford 
and Wicklow, and finally in Ulster. 

It is not my purpose to dilate on the horrors that 
followed. Each side vied with the other in barbar- 
ity and disregard of all human rights. But com- 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 2 5 

mon justice requires that this distinction be made: 
whereas the rebels were, for the greater part, igno- 
rant and fanatic peasants, conscious only of the 
grievous wrongs they had suffered, and therefore in 
a certain degree excusable for their acts, no such 
excuse can be offered for the disciplined troops of 
his Majesty, and, above all, for the Protestant 
Anglo-Irish militia, who richly deserve the reproba- 
,tion of all ages for a degree of bloodthirstiness un- 
paralleled in the history of modern warfare. For 
months the revolted provinces remained a prey to 
the conqueror, and scenes of devastation and rapine 
were of daily occurrence. The League of United 
Irishmen was practically a thing of the past, and the 
iron hand of the despot seemed to hold the stricken 
land tighter than ever in its deadly grasp. It was at 
this supreme hour of misery that the electrifying 
news sped through hill and dale, through town and 
hamlet, that a French army had landed at Killala, 
in the province of Connaught, and was on the march 
to deliver Ireland from the oppressor ! 



CHAPTER II. 

Humbert lands in Killala with a Tliousand Men — Career of the Hero 
and Composition of his Army — Bishop Stock's Testimony to the 
Invaders. 




HE town of Killala is situated 
on the bay of the same name, 
on the coast of County Mayo. 
It is an ancient bishop's see, 
and was founded in almost 
prehistoric times by Amhley, 
a prince of the district, who, 
according to tradition, was 



'i:^-^^ikir'^' converted by St. Patrick, together 
1 with seven hundred of his subjects, 

in a single day. In 1798 there still remained some 
relics of a bygone age. Among them were the ruins 
of a "round tower," erected in the sixth century by 
the eminent Irish architect and divine, Gobhan, on 
a knoll in the centre of the town. From the base of 
this elevation three roads diverged — the main street 
taking an easterly direction, winding by the church- 
yard wall, down a steep hill to the bishop's castle, 



FRENCH INVASION OF IRELAND. 27 

another aged structure dating back many centuries, 
that but for constant repair would long since have 
crumbled into decay ; a second road running south 
to the "Acres," a distant height on the border of the 
town ; and a third pursuing a westerly course to 
the banks of the Owenmore, two miles away. This 
river is crossed by a majestic stone bridge of eleven 
arches at the village of Parsontown, from which 
point the road branches east, following the windings 
of the stream for nearly a mile ; then bending north- 
west parallel to the Bay of Rathfran — an inlet of 
the Bay of Killala — it merges into the highway 
of Foghill. On the banks of a creek at the western 
extremity of the Bay of Rathfran stand the moss- 
grown ruins of Kilcummin, a cell built by Cumin 
in the seventh century. 

It was within sight of this romantic spot that, 
early in the afternoon of the 22d of August, 1798, 
several fishermen, while busy repairing their nets, 
were surprised by the appearance of three large 
war-ships suddenly rounding a neighboring prom- 
ontory and casting anchor two hundred feet from 
the shore. For some days past vague rumors had 
floated through the air that a French fleet had left 
La Rochelle and was on its way to the Irish coast. 
At first sight, therefore, the men decided that this 
must be the enemy. But a second glance revealed 
the British colors flying at the vessels' bows, and, 
eager to earn a few pennies, they left their work 
and at a brisk gait crossed the high ground that hid 



28 THE FRENCH INVASION 

the bay from the town of Killala. Reaching this 
place they made a straight hne for the dwelHng of 
the Rev. Dr. Joseph Stock, Protestant bishop of 
Killala, and in all respects the leading inhabitant 
of that section of the country. This excellent man, 
in spite of his intense Protestantism and fealty 
to the government, harbored a deep resentment 
toward the ultra-loyalists, whose machinations were 
furnishing a plausible pretext to the Romanists 
for distrust and hostility toward their Protestant 
brethren in general. Orange lodges for the avowed 
purpose of stirring up strife were being started in 
Connaught, and the bishop was opposing them 
with might and main. On this very day he was 
busied in entering a protest, in his " primary visita- 
tion " charge, against the first sentence of the oath 
by which Orangemen are banded together, viz. : " I 
am not a Roman Catholic." To his broad and lib- 
eral mind such a sentiment had too pharisaical a 
ring. It sounded too much like : " Stand off, 1 am 
holier than thou ! " ' 

Greatly pleased were the reverend gentleman 
and his guests — clergymen from the vicinity — at 
the news brought by the fishermen. A British 
fleet in the bay meant an end to all danger from 
the French. It meant an end to the condition of 
suspense into which the Protestant population had 
been thrown by the persistent rumors from all 
sides. Even among the servants in the bishop's 

' Narrative of What Passed at Killala. 




y-0 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 2g 

household the belief had been firm that something 
unusual was impending. A Protestant servant- 
maid, married to a Catholic, suspected of afifiliation 
with the rebels, had circulated the report, and Mr. 
William Kirkwood, the local magistrate, had in so 
far credited it as to keep under arms, as a precau- 
tionary measure, the entire body of yeomanry un- 
der his command, together with the Prince of 
Wales' Fencibles under Lieutenant Sills — ^number- 
ing about fifty men, say the loyalist writers, but 
numbering man}' more, say other authorities.' 

Impelled by a desire to pay their respects to the 
officers of the squadron — possibly also to extend 
the hospitalities of the castle — the bishop's two 
sons, Edwin and Arthur Stock, ran down to the 
wharf and jumped into a fishing boat. Here they 
were joined by the port surveyor, Mr. James Rut- 
ledge, and a few minutes later the three were skim- 
ming over the placid surface of the bay on their 
way to the men-of-war. It was nearly three 
o'clock, and the sun beat on the water with a 
fierce, white glare. The three stately ships in the 
foreground, and the verdant, undulating hillocks 
bordering the shore beyond, formed a charming 
picture. As the small boat came within hailing 
distance Rutledge commented on the peculiar 
construction of the vessels, all three apparently 
frigates. His surprise was increased at the sight 

' Adjutant-General Louis Octave Fontaine, for instance, estimates 
the British force at two hundred men. — Notice Historiqiie, p. 7. 



30 THE FRENCH INVASION 

of a number of minor craft plying to and from the 
shore, laden with blue-coated soldiers, who formed 
in line at a short distance from the water's edge. 
Still suspecting nothing, the three approached the 
nearest war ship, from the bows of which numerous 
shaggy heads stared expectantly. 

"Nice-looking fellows for British man-of-war's 
men ! " remarked Rutledge, derisively. 

His hailing cry was answered in a deep bass 
voice, with an unmistakable Irish brogue. A rope 
ladder was lowered, and the three men were hoisted 
on deck. But what was their astonishment to find, 
in lieu of a natty British captain and crew, a row of 
gaunt and sallow men in the uniform of the French 
army, one of whom stepped forward and informed 
them, in fjood Dublin English, and in the name of 
his superior, General Jean-Joseph Humbert, there 
present, that they were on board the French frigate 
Concorde, prisoners of war in the hands of France. 

The prolonged absence of the bishop's sons and 
the surveyor soon awoke suspicions in the minds of 
the loyalists of Killala. By four o'clock the excite- 
ment was at fever heat. The inhabitants had gath- 
ered on Steeple Hill, where Captain Kirkwood with 
his corps, in full uniform, were awaiting the issue of 
events. Two officers from the garrison of Ballina, 
eight miles away, who had seen service at the Cape 
of Good Hope and were judges on matters naval 
and militarv, were eagerly interrogated by the 
spectators, buc they could form no authoritative 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 3 1 

opinion as to the nature of the vessels. " Here," 
said Captain Kirkwood, handing his telescope to an 
old denizen of the town who had fought under 
Howe and Rodney, " here, tell me what these ves- 
sels are." "They are French, sir," returned the 
sea-dog. " I know them by the cut and color of 
their sails." Turning to leave the crowd, Captain 
Kirkwood was questioned by Neal Kerugan (a 
noisy malcontent, and afterward a leader of the 
insurgents) as to the nationality of the frigates. 
" Ah, Neal," replied the captain, significantly, 
" you know as well as I do." 

Just about this time a peasant covered with dust 
and sweat rode furiously into Parsontown with the 
startling information that troops in blue uniforms 
were landing from the ships, and were distributing 
arms to many of the inhabitants who had joined 
them. Presently this fact was confirmed when a 
solid body of men were descried moving along the 
road leading to Killala. Now hidden in the hollows, 
now sharply outlined against the sky, their arms 
flashing in the rays of the setting sun, they marched 
slowly but steadily onward, preceded by a single 
horseman — a large, robust-looking man, dressed in a 
long green hunting frock and a huge conical fur 
cap. On meeting parties of the townsfolk he 
stopped and saluted them in the Leinster patois : 
" Go de mil ha tu " (How do you do). Close upon 
his heels rode a French general — Sarrazin — and his 
aide-de-camp, one Matthew Tone, both seemingly 



32 THE FRENCH INVASION 

much amused at the other's successful handling of 
the Irish tongue. When they had crossed the Par- 
sontown bridge General Humbert drove up in a gig 
and ordered three hundred of his men to bivouac 
on the green esplanade in front of the village, 
while the remainder were sent on to Killala. 

Twilight was falling on the world, and the gentle 
voices of the evening insects were singing a lullaby 
to the drowsy earth when Sarrazin's stalwart grena- 
diers and infantry marched down the hill of Mullag- 
hern and advanced upon the little town. Captain 
Kirkwood, informed of the true state of affairs, has- 
tily gathered together his yeomanry and the Fenci- 
bles, and ordered them to a commanding ridge on the 
outskirts; but soon deciding this position to be less 
advantageous than one within the town itself, he 
fell back and took a stand at the top of the decline 
leading to the castle. He showed his wisdom, for 
no better situation could have been selected for a 
retreat. Sarrazin, on arriving within gunshot of the 
enemy, made his dispositions. He sent a detach- 
ment under Neal Kerugan — now a full-fledged rebel 
— to occupy the "Acres" road, to turn the British, 
if in position, or cut them off in the event of their 
retreating. He stationed a handful of sharpshooters 
on the deserted ridge, and sent the green-coated 
horseman referred to before forward to reconnoitre. 
Through the winding streets the chasseur dashed. 
The target of many a bullet, he reached the market- 
place unharmed. Here be was challenged by a 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 33 

young gentleman of the place in yeoman's uniform 
with: "What do you want, you spy?" The voice 
of war is the scream of the bullet, and the answer, 
conveyed through the medium of a pistol, was both 
convincing and silencing. One more dash in the 
face of death to inspect the enemy's position, and 
this modern Achilles, with his heel well booted, 
was back among his companions, where he related 
with much unction that " though he had been in 
twenty battles, he had never before had the honor 
to receive the entire fire of the enemy's lines."' 

By this time the action had begun. The sharp- 
shooters were showing their mettle, and the grena- 
diers, who had headed the attacking column, de- 
ployed on the main street, in the centre of the 
town. There they were opposed by the English 
with a faint-hearted fire. Captain Kirkwood, alarmed 
at the indecision of his men, ordered them in ex- 
cited tones to charge. The command found no 
response. The line hesitated, wavered, broke — - 
and in a moment the whole force were skurrying 
toward the castle gates. In the scramble the 
town's apothecary, a respectable citizen of the name 
of Smith, was laid low by a bullet from a French 
trooper, and the Rev. Dr. Ellison, of Castlebar, an 

' This interesting episode is gleaned from the account of an eye- 
witness published in the Dublin Penny Journal oi 1833. The name 
of the hero is unfortunately not mentioned, but the man was prob- 
ably Henry O'Keon, one of the prominent Irish members of the 
expedition. 

3 



34 THE FRENCH INVASION 

Anglican clergyman and guest of the bishop, who 
had bravely appeared in the ranks, musket in hand, 
received a wound in the heel. At the castle gates 
the fight was resumed, this time with some spirit. 
The defenders endeavored to barricade the entrance, 
but notwithstanding the unquestionable bravery of 
their commanders, one of whom, Lieutenant Sills, 
wounded an ofificer of the attacking party, the gate 
was forced open and what remained of the British 
laid down their arms. These were nineteen in 
number. The rest had been killed or wounded, or 
had f!ed. Among the latter were the two ofificers 
from Ballina, who carried the news to their com- 
mander. 

An interesting scene occurred when the smoke 
in the court-yard had cleared away. A tall man of 
resolute mien, wearing a general's epaulettes, who 
arrived at the conclusion of the fight, accompanied 
by a numerous staff, and who proved to be Hum- 
bert himself, suddenly ordered the troops in stento- 
rian tones to ground arms. Then turning to the 
three prisoners, Mr. Rutledge and the Stock boys, 
who had been brought with the column, he asked 
through an interpreter where the bishop could be 
found. Naturally the badly frightened men were 
unable to supply the information ; but the suspense 
was of short duration, for presently the worthy prel- 
ate emerged from the bushes of his garden near 
by. He was at once assured by the same inter- 
preter, one Bartholomew Teeling — of whom there 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 35 

will be occasion to speak further on — that no harm 
was intended ; and as he stepped forward Hum- 
bert extended his hand. What improved matters 
was the bishop's knowledge of French, an advan- 
tage which, combined with his honest exterior, 
impressed the general favorably. At all events 
the latter's first words breathed kindness and good 
will. 

"Take my word for it," was his assurance, "that 
neither your people nor yourself shall have cause to 
feel any apprehension. We have come to your 
country not as conquerors, but as deliverers, and 
shall take only from you absolutely what is neces- 
sary for our support. You are as safe under our 
protection as you were under that of his Majesty, 
the King of England." 

All contemporaneous authorities, be they Eng- 
lish or Irish, loyalist or revolutionist, agree that, to 
the honor of the French name, this promise was 
religiously kept. History furnishes few examples 
of so scrupulous an observance of the rules of civi- 
lized warfare, so thorough a respect for the rights 
of the conquered, as distinguished the operations of 
General Humbert and his little army. 

And now a few words regarding the origin and 
organization of this expedition, which for a short 
period threatened to crush out England's suprem- 
acy in the Emerald Isle. In the preceding chap- 
ter reference was made to the several isolated 
attempts on the part of the French Directory to 



36 THE FRENCH INVASION 

land an invading army on the Irish coast. The last 
one had been balked by Bonaparte's designs on 
Egypt. Thereafter the demands for aid of the 
Irish emissaries in Paris only became more urgent 
and incessant. Owing to the Egyptian expedition 
having well nigh drained the republic of money, 
ships and stores, several months elapsed before a 
fresh armament could be equipped. This time it 
was decided to send out two small advance forces, 
and to follow them up later with a main body. For 
that end General Humbert was stationed at La 
Rochelle with about 1,000 veterans, while General 
Hardy took up quarters at Brest with 3,000 soldiers, 
mainly ex-convicts. The gros of the expeditionary 
force, numbering 10,000 men, was placed under the 
orders of " Kibnaine Ic brave'' as his companions-in- 
arms delighted to call him. This distinguished 
officer was an Irishman by birth, named Jennings, 
who assumed the " nom dc guerre " of Kilmaine 
upon entering the French military service, where 
his splendid achievements on the frontier of the 
Austrian Netherlands elevated him to the rank of 
lieutenant-general. 

Of these three separate forces only the smallest, 
under the orders of Humbert, was destined to reach 
its goal. Humbert himself, if some of his biog- 
raphers are to be believed, was far from being the 
ideal hero of a romance of war. To his many brill- 
iant parts were allied vices that in any but a dis- 
organized state of society must have disqualified 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 3 J' 

him for every position of honor. Beset as she was 
at that epoch with enemies on all her borders, 
France had need for every citizen who could con- 
tribute to the salvation of the fatherland. Purity 
of character was little in demand, and the man of 
ability, however unscrupulous, possessed better 
chances of advancement than his honest but me- 
diocre neighbor. The authorities are divided both 
as to Humbert's birth-place and the date of his 
birth.' From one source we learn that he was born 
at Rouveroye, November 25, 1755 ; from another 
that he first saw the light of day in 1767 at Bouvron 
(Meurthe). But this is a small matter. It appears 
to be beyond dispute that young Jean-Joseph 
Amable Humbert was a " hard character " from the 
very start, and that he brought much sorrow on his 
grandmother, on whom the care of the youth de- 
volved after the early death of both his parents. 
After leading her a life of misery, he left her roof at 
the age of seventeen to enter the service of a cloth 
merchant in a neighboring town. He had shown 
an early disposition to pay undue attentions to the 
fair sex, and his handsome face and lithesome figure 
had stood him in good stead in these matters. 
Away from home the temptation grew stronger, 
and we soon find him dismissed from his employ 
for acts of gross immorality. The youth returned 

' See Didot's Biographie Universelle, Paris, 1852 ; Michaud's 
Biographie Universelle, Paris, 1848; Le Bas' Encyclopadie Bio- 
graphique, Paris, 1853. 



38 THE FRENCH INVASION 

to Rouveroye/ but his reputation had preceded 
him, and he saw every door closed at his coming. 

For the second time he left home to seek his for- 
tunes elsewhere, and again, as before, his ill-conduct 
brought with it a summary dismissal from a steady 
situation in a hat factory in Lyons. The young 
man now became a social pariah. These were still 
ante-revolutionary times, and a disgraced employd 
found it difficult to secure recognition anywhere. 
Starvation stared our hero in the face. In this 
dilemma a happy thought struck him. He had cas- 
ually discovered that skins of certain animals, such 
as rabbits, young goats, etc., were in great demand 
in the glove and leggings factories of Lyons and 
Grenoble. He therefore started out with a few 
francs in his pockets, and wandering among the 
remote villages of the Vosges district, purchased at 
low rates as much of this merchandise as his means 
would allow. A handsome profit on the first batch 
encouraged him to undertake a second and a third 
tour, and after awhile his figure became familiar 
throughout a large tract of the country. 

At last there resounded the tocsin of the great 
revolution. For once the heart of the wanderer 
seems to have throbbed with a grand impulse. The 
fires of ambition that had lain dormant in his breast 
blazed forth in all their fury. Abandoning his now 
prosperous pursuits, he threw himself into the great 

' The weight of evidence is in favor of Rouveroye as the birth- 
place of Humbert. 



OF IRELAND IN 'q8. 39 

movement. Peasants who had bartered and bar- 
gained with him, maidens who had known him as a 
peripatetic swain, were electrified by the earnestness 
of his exhortations. He joined one of the first vol- 
unteer battalions organized among the Vosges, and 
by his active republicanism no less than by his mili- 
tary qualities, quickly rose to be its chief. With 
the rank of Mar^chal-de-cavip, he accompanied the 
army under Beurnonville which in 1793 burst into 
the territory of Treves. It was here that another 
bad side to his character disclosed itself. On the 
field of battle brave to a fault, utterly regardless, of 
his own person and ever ready to embark in the 
most perilous enterprise, in camp he proved himself 
an arch intriguer. Anxious to secure promotion, 
he secretly sought permission from the Directory to 
act as an informer on the movements of his com- 
rades-in-arms, averring that many were guilty of 
lukewarmness in the cause of the republic. Beur- 
nonville, however, got wind of his subordinate's 
schemes, and wrote a scathing letter of denunciation 
to the military authorities in Paris, characterizing 
the action as the height of baseness (/<? comble de la 
scH^ratesse) on Humbert's part, and demanding his 
immediate recall. 

Concluding a modus vivendi between the two to 
be henceforth out of the question, the Directory 
reluctantly acceded to Beurnonville's request, and 
for some months Humbert prowled around Jacobin 
headquarters in Paris, awaiting fresh employment. 



40 THE FRENCH INVASION 

His persuasive eloquence and apparent earnestness 
as a promoter of republican doctrine made him a 
favorite there. In April, 1794, he was promoted 
general of brigade and given a command in the Army 
of the West. Of all the different forces sent out to 
combat the enemies of the republic, that which op- 
posed the fierce chouans of La Vendee encountered 
the greatest dangers and obstacles. Victor Hugo, 
in his Ltfgoide des Slacks, has fittingly described the 
struggle as a combat " 'twixt the soldiers of light 
and the heroes of darkness ; " and in truth, were it 
not for the atrocities committed on both sides, this 
campaign might take its place among the most brijl- 
iant annals of ancient chivalry. Neither party 
asked nor expected quarter. It was a war to the 
knife, without truce, without respite. Humbert 
showed himself equal to every emergency. He 
hunted down the foe with unabating ardor, tracked 
him into his marshy lairs and forest fastnesses, and 
won the admiration of the entire army by his per- 
sonal disregard of danger. After many months of 
hard fighting, the Convention decided to adopt a 
milder course toward the insurgents, and on March 
7, 1795, a treaty was signed at Nantes by which, in 
return for certain privileges, the Vendeans agreed to 
acknowledge the republic. The pause in hostilities 
was unfortunately of short duration. Cormatin-De- 
soteux, the chouan leader, having repeatedly violated 
several provisions of the treaty, Humbert effected 
his arrest, and sent him in chains to Cherbourg. 



OF IRELAND IM 'g8. 41 

This act, coupled with the discovery of a traitorous 
correspondence between the Vendean leaders and 
the English Government, fanned the smouldering 
embers of factional hatred, and by the beginning 
of summer the civil war was renewed with increased 
ferocity. 

As second in command under General Hoche, 
Humbert took part in all the operations at Qui- 
beron against the Anglo-Emigrant Army landed by 
a British fleet. He inflicted a crushing defeat on 
the invaders on July i6th, from behind his en- 
trenchments at St. Barbe, and on the 20th stormed 
the fort of Penthievre, thereby destroying or cap- 
turing the entire emigrant force. The subsequent 
massacre of prisoners, which will ever remain a blot 
on the escutcheon of the republic, is, however, not 
to be laid at his door. The horrible act was 
ordered by the two General Commissaries, Blad and 
Tallien, and was executed against the wishes both 
of Hoche and Humbert. The latter had not made 
himself popular among the Moderatists while in 
Paris, and the opportunity was seized upon by the 
newspapers of the Clichy party to hold him up to 
public contempt. His early vocation was thrown 
up against him, and the former " marchand de 
peaux de lapin " became the target of many a 
satire in prose and verse. All these assaults were 
fruitless, however. If anything, they tended to ce- 
ment his influence with the Directory. In any case 
he was made a general of division, and selected, a 



42 THE FRENCH INVASION 

year after, to accompany Hoche in the expedition 
to Ireland. Reference has already been made to 
this event, and to the failure of the French to 
effect a landing. One of their ships, the Droits de 
r Homme, a seventy-four, was intercepted on the 
retreat by two English vessels, and between their 
cross fire and the raging of a terrific storm, she was 
completely wrecked. Of the i,8oo men on board, 
barely 400 escaped with their lives, and among 
these was General Humbert. 

Such was the career of the man upon whom now 
devolved the task of bearding the British lion in his 
den. To complete the picture one cannot do bet- 
ter than quote the following estimate of his char- 
acter, contained in an anonymous pamphlet pub- 
lished in 1800, the authorship of which has been 
brought home to Bishop Stock, of Killala : ' 

" Humbert, the leader of this singular body of 
men," says the writer, " was himself as extraordi- 
nary a personage as any in his army. Of a good 
height and shape, in the full vigor of life, prompt 
to decide, quick in execution, apparently master of 
his art, you could not refuse him the praise of a 
good ofificer, while his physiognomy forbade you to 
like him as a man. His eye, which was small and 
sleepy (the effect, probably, of much watching), 
cast a sidelong glance of insidiousness, and even of 
cruelty : it was the eye of a cat preparing to spring 
upon her prey. His education and manners were 

' A Narrative of What Passed at Killala. By an Eye-witness. 



OF IRELAND IM 'g8. 43 

indicative of a person sprung from the lower order 
of society, though he knew how (as most of his 
countrymen can do) to assume, where it was con- 
venient, the deportment of a gentleman. For 
learning he had scarcely enough to enable him to 
write his name. His passions were furious, and all 
his behavior seemed marked with the characters of 
roughness and violence. A narrower observation 
of him, however, served to discover that much of 
this roughness was the result of art, being assumed 
with the view of extorting by terror a ready com- 
pliance with his commands." 

Prior to his embarkation from La Rochelle Hum- 
bert had difficulties of no trifling nature to con- 
tend with. As stated, France's resources had been 
sorely taxed by the expedition to Egypt, and 
neither money nor even necessaries for the troops 
could be obtained from the Commissariat Depart- 
ment. Yet no obstacle could daunt the indomit- 
able spirit of the soldier. Hoche was no more, 
but the same determination to strike a blow at 
England's vital point controlled the actions of his 
friend and successor. Impatient of delay, and re- 
fusing longer to await the cooperation of others, 
Humbert and his slender detachment put to sea on 
the morning of August 4th, at seven o'clock. The 
event occasioned much enthusiasm in La Rochelle, 
and the quays were thronged with citizens who 
shouted themselves hoarse in bidding god-speed to 
the " Army of Ireland." A powerful English fleet 



44 THE FRENCH INVASION 

was cruising within a mile of the port, and it re- 
quired great skill on the part of Division Com- 
mander Daniel Savary to escape a conflict. Only 
by plying vigorously to the windward did he suc- 
ceed. It had been decided in advance that rather 
than accept battle against the tremendous odds the 
three vessels should be run aground on the Spanish 
coast..' 

Humbert's armament consisted of three frigates: 
the Concorde and Mcd^e, of 44 eighteen-pounders 
each, and the Franchise, of 38 twelve-pounders. 
His entire landing strength did not exceed 1,060 
rank and file and 70 officers, with two pieces of 
field artillery, four-pounders. He also brought 
5,500 stands of arms for the arming of the Irish 
peasantry.^ His troops were composed in the 
main of infantry of the line, with two companies of 
grenadiers and a squadron of the Third Regiment 
of Chasseurs. All were veterans and had seen ser- 
vice under Jourdan and Moreau on the Rhine, or 
under Bonaparte in Italy. 

The officers, some of whom bore on their per- 
sons the marks of many a bloody encounter, de- 
serve a preliminary notice. There was Sarrazin, to 

' Fontaine's N^otice Historique. 

* These figures are from Sir Richard Musgrave's Memoirs and 
other authentic sources. However, according to Fontaine, Hum- 
bert's adjutant-general, the total strength amounted to but 1,032 
men, viz. : the second battalion of the 70th Half- Brigade, 45 Chas- 
sfurs a Chfval belonging to the Third Regiment, 42 coast-guard 
gunners, and 50 officers. See Fontaine's Notice Historique, page 2. 




GENERAL SARRAZIN. 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 45 

begin with, a remarkable figure in his way, whose 
career, like Humbert's, may be considered thor- 
oughly illustrative of the peculiar conditions cre- 
ated in the military system of France by the 
change in her political life. Born in 1770, the third 
year of the revolution already saw him a captain 
of infantry. In 1794 he was transferred to the En- 
gineers, but shortly after, in consequence of prow- 
ess in the field, received his commission as colonel 
of the Fourteenth Regiment of Dragoons. In 
1796 he was already a general-adjutant, and, as 
will soon be shown, the " Irish Campaign " brought 
him further promotion. Sarrazin, in other words, 
was the true type of the French Republican sol- 
dier: a product of those troublesome and stormy 
times when success meant rapid rise to honors and 
distinctions, and failure — the gory embrace of the 
guillotine!' Next in authority after Sarrazin 
came Adjutant-General Louis Octave Fontaine, to 
whose pen the author is indebted for a remarkable 
account of the expedition. His book, or pamphlet, 
was published in Paris two years after the event, 
and although it teems with errors, geographical, 
chronological and others, it is valuable as the only 
authentic French version in existence, outside of 
General Humbert's meagre reports to the Direc- 
tory. The writer constantly refers to himself in the 

' These particulars are from a periodical entitled The Philosopher, 
edited by Sarrazin himself while an exile in London some year.s 
later. 



46 THE FRENCH INVASION 

third person as " le brave Gdn^ral Fontaine,'' and 
would have us believe that the partial success of 
the invasion was due to his own foresight and 
energy. With a naivete refreshing for its very 
frankness, he places himself in the light of a 
Deus ex machina, ever turning up at the right mo- 
me;it to extricate his companions from dire dilem- 
mas and show them the road to victory. This 
naivete attains its pinnacle when, as if by an after- 
thought, he explains at the conclusion of his work 
that he has purposely omitted mentioning the 
names of his companions-in-arms for fear of over- 
looking any one of them and thus causing un- 
merited pain. The fatuous vanity of the writer, 
and his unfortunate habit of treating Irish names 
and places as unworthy of proper record, does not 
prevent his furnishing many a missing link to 
the chain of evidence touching this extraordinary 
phase of modern history, and for so much, if for 
no other reason, posterity must feel grateful to 
him. 

Several Irishmen accompanied Humbert in vari- 
ous capacities. Bartholomew Teeling, of Lisburn, 
was one. He was a young man who had left his 
native country — a mere stripling — to join the 
French Republican Army. He had fought side by 
side with rabid atheists and open enemies of the 
Church, and yet through all these experiences his 
faith in the religion of his forefathers had never 
slackened. A scholar, a patriot and an observer, 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 47 

with an admixture of the enthusiast, he had not 
allowed his political convictions to interfere with 
his religious belief. His mildness of manner and 
patrician bearing formed a pleasing contrast to the 
rough, soldier-like deportment of Humbert, who 
had selected him as his aide-de-camp. Humbert's 
official interpreter was another Irishman, one Henry 
O'Keon, the son of a cow-herd of Lord Tyrawley. 
He was born in the neighborhood of Kilcummin, 
the landing-place of the French near Killala — a cir- 
cumstance which points its own conclusion and re- 
futes the oft-repeated statement that that spot had 
been selected by mere chance. Having learned a 
little Latin at schoql, O'Keon repaired to Nantes, 
Brittany, where he studied theology and received 
holy orders. On the advent of the republic he 
suddenly changed his convictions — if indeed he had 
ever entertained any — enlisted in the army as a 
private, and was gradually advanced to the rank of 
major. He was physically well developed and 
possessed the heavy, coarse features of the lower 
type of the Celtic race. The merry twinkle of 
his eyes and the joviality of his ruddy counte- 
nance completely dispelled the repellent effect of a 
pair of heavy, beetling eyebrows. He spoke Irish 
and French fluently, and English indifferently. 
His part in the campaign was a creditable one, 
and would entitle him to an honorable place in 
its history had he not marred it by an act of 
dishonesty toward the Bishop of Killala, and a 



48 FRENCH INVASION OF IRELAND. 

breach of good morals, before his final departure for 
France. ' 

Two other Irishmen accompanied the expedition 
— Matthew Tone, already mentioned, brother of 
the celebrated Theobald Wolfe Tone, and one 
O'Sullivan, a native of South Ireland and one of 
the very few rebel leaders who were fortunate 
enough to escape the avenging hand of the British 
Government, Although captured by the loyalists, 
he was not recognized, and afterward made his 
way back to the continent. 

' He swindled Bishop Stock out of twelve guineas and took away 
with him from Dublin another man's wife. — Narrative of What 
Passed at Killala. 



CHAPTER III. 

A Proclamation to the Irish People — Astonishment of the Invaders 
at the Religious Zeal of their Irish Allies — Peculiar Position of 
the Irisli Clergy — Their Intolerance rebuked by the French. 




S the last rays of the setting 
sun illumined the town and 
bay of Killala on that mem- 
orable 22d of August, 1798, 
a French soldier climbed to 
the roof of the Episcopal 
palace and lowered the Brit- 
ish colors that from time 
immemorial had floated there. The 
staff was not destined to remain long 
bare, for presently a green flag, with a harp em- 
broidered in the centre, and bearing the motto, 
" Erin go BragJi,'' rose slowly from its base, greeted 
by a triple salvo and the cheers of a large concourse 
of people. The inhabitants of Killala had fully 
realized the significance of the situation, and the 
large majority being malcontents, the invading 
army had been surrounded by enthusiastic throngs, 
eager to offer help and cooperation. 



50 THE FRENCH INVASION 

To what extent the leaders of the insurgents 
were prepared for Humbert's coming may be gath- 
ered from the somewhat colored statement of a 
loyalist inhabitant, who declares that a number of 
them appeared from the start in uniforms provided 
by their " nciu friends." " Nothing," he continues, 
" could exceed the consternation which prevailed 
throughout the town — the loyalists every moment 
expecting to be butchered in cold blood. Men, 
women and children, drowned in tears, attempted 
to escape, but in vain. Every avenue leading from 
Killala was thronged by rebels making in to receive 
the fraternal embrace, whose eyes indicated the 
malignity of their hearts. No one was permitted 
to depart but on business which concerned the in- 
vaders." ' 

Humbert was not dilatory in arranging for the 
provisioning of his troops. His supplies had run 
short, owing to the hurry of his departure from La 
Rochelle, and he had no reason to expect any fur- 
ther help for the present from France.^ So the 
very evening of his arrival he ordered the prisoners 
to be brought before him and questioned them 
closely as to the resources of the district. He 

' Jones' Narrative (Am. reprint), page 282. 

' Here is Adjutant-General Fontaine's reflection on this subject 
(See his Notice Historique, page 6): "Nous avious a bord des 
provisions a bouche, c'est-a-dire, quelques sacs de biscuits, et une 
pipe d'eau-de-vie. On jugera par ce detail exact que nous nous 
etions plus occupes de la gloire que des moyens d'assurer notre 
existence." 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 51 

assured the bishop, however, that while the neces- 
sities of war would compel him to requisition a 
certain number of horses and cattle, he intended 
eventually to compensate the owners, who would in 
the meanwhile receive vouchers for all such prop- 
erty, payable on the Irish Directory, shortly to be 
established in Connaught. Magistrate Kirkwood's 
answers to the different interrogatories, as inter- 
preted by Teeling, were apparently so frank and 
truthful that Humbert took a fancy to him, and, 
placing him on parole, assured him that he would 
be entirely unmolested and allowed to attend to his 
private affairs, provided he remained within the 
town's limits. Unhappily for the magistrate, his 
invalid wife had meanwhile fled to the neighboring 
mountains, and his anxiety for her welfare resulted 
in his starting out in search of her the very next 
day. Of course this action was regarded as a fla- 
grant breach of parole, and in retaliation the French 
helped themselves freely to everything they could 
find in his house. They also permitted the Irish 
revolutionists to ransack it from top to bottom, so 
that Kirkwood subsequently returned to find his 
home a ruin. 

But if one excepts a little sally of ill-humor on 
Humbert's part when he discovered, the day after 
the landing, that the bishop had failed to comply 
with the orders for furnishing horses and cattle, 
the treatment of Kirkwood was the only approach 
to severity that can be laid at the door of the 



52 THE FRENCH INVASION 

French during their entire stay in Ireland. If we are 
to believe the bishop himself — and he certainly could 
have no motive for exaggerating the virtues of the 
invaders of his country — the discipline maintained 
by Humbert's troops was excellent throughout. 
"With every temptation to plunder," he remarks, 
" which the time and the number of valuable articles 
within their reach presented to them in the bish- 
op's palace, from a sideboard of plate and glasses, 
a hall filled with hats, whips, and great-coats, as 
well of the guests as of the family, not a single 
particular of private property was found to have 
been carried away when the owners, after the first 
fright was over, came to look for their effects, which 
was not for a day or two after the landing. Imme- 
diately upon entering the dining-room a French 
officer had called for the bishop's butler, and gath- 
ering up the spoons and glasses had desired him to 
take them to his pantry. Beside the entire use of 
other apartments during the stay of the French 
in Killala, the attic story, containing a library and 
three bed-chambers, continued sacred to the bishop 
and his family. And so scrupulous was the deli- 
cacy of the French not to disturb the female part 
of the house, that not one of them was ever seen to 
go higher than the middle floor, except on the even- 
ing of their success at Castlebar, when two officers 
begged leave to carry to the family the news of the 
battle, and seemed a little mortified that the intel- 
ligence was received with an air of dissatisfaction." 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 53 

On the morning of the 23d the French com- 
mander issued a proclamation that had been care- 
fully prepared by himself and the Irish officers ac- 
companying the expedition. It was couched in the 
florid language of the day, and, translated into the 
Irish tongue, was well calculated to stir the fervid 
Celtic nature to action. It read as follows : 

LIBERTY, EQUALITY. FRATERNITY, UNION ! 

Irishmen : 

You have not forgotten Bantry Bay — you know what efforts 
France has made to assist you. Her affections for you, her 
desire for avenging your wrongs and insuring your independ- 
ence, can never be impaired. 

After several unsuccessful attempts, behold Frenchmen 
arrived amongst you. 

They come to support your courage, to share your dangers, 
to join their arms and to mix their blood with yours in the 
sacred cause of liberty ! They are the forerunners of other 
Frenchmen, whom you shall soon enfold in your arms. 

Brave Irishmen, our cause is common ; like you, we abhor 
the avaricious and bloodthirsty policy of an oppressive govern- 
ment ; like you, we hold as indefensible the right of all nations 
to liberty ; like you, we are persuaded that the peace of the 
world shall ever be troubled as long as the British Ministry is 
suffered to make with impunity a traffic of the industry, labor 
and blood of the people. 

But exclusive of the same interests which unite us, we have 
powerful motives to love and defend you. 

Have we not been the pretext of the cruelty exercised 
against you by the Cabinet of St. James ? The heartfelt inter- 
est you have shown in the grand events of our revolution — 
has it not been imputed to you as a crime ? Are not tortures 



54 THE FRENCH INVASION 

and death continually hanging over such of you as are barely 
suspected of being our friends ? Let us unite, then, and 
march to glory. 

We swear the most inviolable respect for your properties, 
your laws, and all your religiotis opinions. Be free ! be 
jnasters in your own country. We look for 710 other coti- 
quest thuji that of your liberty — no other success than 
yours. 

The moment of breaking your chains has arrived ; our tri- 
umphant troops are now flying to the extremities of the earth 
to tear up the roots of the wealth and tyranny of our enemies. 
That frightened Colossus is mouldering away in every part. 
Can there be any Irishman base enough to separate himself at 
such a happy conjuncture from the grand interests of his 
country? If such there be, brave friends, let him be chased 
from the country he betrays, and let his property become the 
reward of those generous men who know how to fight and 
die! 

Irishmen, recollect the late defeats which your enemies have 
experienced from the French ; recollect the claims of Hons- 
coote, Toulon, Quiberon, and Ostend ; recollect America, free 
from the moment she wished to be so. 

The contest between you and your oppressors cannot be 
long. 

Union ! Liberty ! the Irish Republic ! such is our shout. 
Let us march. Our hearts are devoted to you ; our glory is in 
your happiness. 

Humbert. 

The forenoon of the 23d was occupied in trans- 
porting the munition and military stores from the 
ships to the town of Killala. Having attended to 
this and placed his prisoners in charge of Savary, 
Humbert next bethought himself of the enemy. He 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 55 

sent Sarrazin — promoted to the rank of general of 
brigade for his spirited conduct of the preceding 
day — with a small force in the direction of Ballina 
to reconnoitre the country. Ballina, a fishing town 
on the River Moy, was in the hands of several troops 
of carabineers and yeomanry infantry under the 
command of Colonel Sir Thomas Chapman and Ma- 
jor Kerr, the greater part of which had come up 
during the night by forced marches from Foxford — 
another point still further to the south — on the first 
alarm of Humbert's arrival. Sarrazin's movements 
were so rapid and unexpected that he fell upon a 
party of the enemy engaged in feeding their horses, 
and almost succeeded in surrounding them. A sharp 
engagement followed, ending in the flight of the 
British. After pursuing them two leagues, Sar- 
razin, considering his mission accomplished, returned 
in the afternoon to Killala. 

Here the preparations for an active campaign 
were being pushed with great energy. Humbert's 
programme being to organize a regular army com- 
posed of Irishmen, he assembled all the leading 
agitators of the vicinity, to obtain their aid and coun- 
sel. It was at this period, already, that he dis- 
covered the great gulf which separated the French 
Republican and Freethinker from the Irish patriot 
and Catholic. Humbert, a soldier of the nation 
that had driven the pope from Italy, found himself, 
to his surprise, the would-be deliverer of a race to 
whom the pontiff was but one remove from the 



$6 THE FRENCH INVASION 

Deity itself. The situation was as startling as it 
was unexpected, not to him alone but to every one 
of his followers — sons of the great revolution, w^or- 
shippers at the shrine of " Liberty " and " Reason," 
to whom the old religions, one and all, were part 
and parcel of a system for the enslaving of the hu- 
man mind and body. From the neck of every one 
of the sturdy peasants who by hundreds gathered in 
front of the castle, clamoring for arms and the op- 
portunity to march against the common foe, hung a 
square piece of brown cloth with the letters I. H. S.' 
inscribed on it. These were scapulars intended to 
arm them with fresh courage and protect them from 
danger in the hour of trial. Some carried banners 
decorated with the embroidered counterfeit of the 
Virgin Mary and infant Jesus; some held up cruci- 
fixes for their companions to adore. All greeted 
the French as defenders of the true religion, and 
asked for the confiscation of all Protestant property; 
and the more bloodthirsty even demanded that the 
entire extirpation of the heretics be commenced 
without delay. 

To Humbert the situation was embarrassing in 
the extreme. On the one hand, by rejecting the 
demands of the insurgents he risked losing their 
much-needed assistance ; on the other, by acceding 
to them he would be violating the rules of war and 
exposing himself and his men to the vengeance of 
the enemy in case of defeat. He called to mind 

' Jestis hominum Salvator. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. $7 

Moreau's refusal to execute the Directory's blood- 
thirsty decree, ordering the killing of English and 
Hanoverian prisoners of war, and decided to adopt 
a similar course. The insurgents were therefore 
told in unmistakable terms that all attempts to 
harm any loyalist would be met with summary pun- 
ishment of the offender. 

In a grandiloquent manner suited to the neces- 
sities of the case, Humbert addressed his hearers, 
through the medium of an interpreter, somewhat as 
follows: "Citizens and brethren : understand that we 
are soldiers, not highway robbers. We have landed 
here to fight the armies of the King of England 
and save your unfortunate country — not to wage 
war on private citizens. We in France acknowl- 
edge no religion that preaches intolerance toward 
another. We believe as little in your Pope as in 
your Established Church — Catholics and Protest- 
ants are the same to us. We believe only in justice 
and charity to all mankind." 

This harangue, short and decisive, produced for 
the time being the desired result. Murmurs were 
audible for a moment, but the wiser counsel pre- 
vailed and the recruiting proceeded without further 
hindrance. Strange to say, most active, in a cer- 
tain sense, in promoting the interests of the French 
were the priests themselves, whose mission Hum- 
bert had inferentially deprecated. Not so much 
that they placed patriotism above religious preju- 
dice. To them the bearing of the invaders could 



58 THE FRENCH INVASION 

never have been a disappointment, for were they 
not fully cognizant of the republic's treatment of 
the clergy ? In their hearts these servants of Rome 
detested the Freethinker as cordially as they abomi- 
nated their Protestant fellow-citizen ; but, imbued 
with the Machiavellian spirit of the Church, they 
seized with avidity the opportunity of annihilating 
one foe through the instrumentality of another. 
From beg-inning to end the influence of several of 
their number was insidiously directed toward en- 
compassing the suppression if not the total destruc- 
tion of the " Orangemen," a term indiscriminately 
applied to all non-Catholics, and but for the ener- 
getic interposition of the French the massacres of 
Scullabogue and Wexford ' would in all probability 
have found their counterparts in the province of 
Connaught. That the parish priests especially were 
very assiduous at the start in swelling the ranks of 
the rebel forces^cannot be denied, and their services 
were fully appreciated by the French commander, 
but he never considered them any the more entitled 
to the privilege of maltreating or plundering their 
unprotected enemies. To cite one example, a priest 
named Sweeney, who, with a body of his parishion- 
ers, had joined the invaders almost immediately after 
their arrival, approached Lieutenant-Colonel Charost 
with the request that Bishop Stock's library be 
made over to him, as he was very fond of books. 

' Two towns of Leinster in which horrible atrocities were com- 
mitted by the rebels during the outbreak of 'gS. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 59 

"The bishop's library," replied Charost in a tone 
of contempt, "is just as much his own now as it 
ever was." ' Another worthy representative of the 
Church militant was Father Owen Cowley, of the 
parish of Castleconnor, Sligo, who, if the affidavits 
of his victims can be credited, spared no pains to 
bring about the wholesale slaughter of the English 
prisoners confined at Ballina. Though he failed in 
this pious design his treatment of them was cruel 
in the extreme. 

But this phase of the campaign will receive 
further attention in another chapter. For the pres- 
ent it is only necessary to say that the incongruity 
of the various elements gathered together in Kill- 
ala could only be compared to the unprecedented 
nature of the situation itself. For the first time, 
perhaps, in the world's history, the passions of war- 
ring religionists were restrained by the intervention 
of neutrals entirely devoid of all religious belief. 
Still more extraordinary was the fact that many of 
the latter had but two years before been engaged in 
deadly strife with an element very similar in most 
respects to the people they had now come to de- 
liver from bondage. In the bloody struggle of La 
Vendue the republicans had been opposed to men 
of Celtic race and intense Catholicism — men abhor- 
ring every other form of government save that 
sanctified by the Holy Father and his servant, the 
king. Now the position was reversed. The scapu- 

' Narrative of What Passed at Killala. 



6o FRENCH INVASION OF IRELAND. 

lar, the Church banner, the censer and the crucifix 
were to be paraded side by side with the tricolor of 
Atheism and Revolution. War and politics make 
strange bed-fellows, indeed ! 




MAROL'LS OF CORNWAI.LIS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Field of Operations — Morale of the English Forces — An En- 
gagement near Ballina — Episodes at the Capture of that Town. 




AVING stated the situa- 
tion of the invading force, 
let us glance at the field of 
operations and the disposi- 
tions for defence made by 
the British military author- 
ities. At the conclusion of 
the first chapter allusion 
was made to the rebellious out- 
breaks in counties Wexford and 
Wicklow and the province of Ul- 
ster, during May and June, 1798, and their bloody 
suppression by the troops of the king. These dif- 
ferent disturbances had resulted in the concentra- 
tion in various portions of the unfortunate country 
of bodies of regulars and militia aggregating 150,000 
men, under the supreme command of Lord Corn- 
wallis, the brave opponent of Washington, The 
regulars constituted the flower of the English Army, 



6^ THE FRENCH INVASION 

and before landing in Ireland had seen service in 
the Netherlands, in India and elsewhere. The 
militia or yeomanry consisted of volunteers re- 
cruited from the body of the Protestant population 
of the country — descendants of the earlier English 
and Scotch invaders and settlers. The corps came 
into existence in the autumn of 1796, at the in- 
stance of the government, which, foreseeing the evil 
consequences likely to ensue from the prevailing 
abuses, desired to build up a solid dam against the 
inflowing tide of popular indignation. In the teeth 
of Catholic opposition a measure passed the Irish 
Parliament creating a force of 20,000 men, and this 
number swelled to 36,000 before the end of the first 
six months. During the rebellion the yeomanry 
force exceeded 50,000 men of all arms. 

With regard to the discipline and moral standing 
of the army as a whole, it is sufficient to quote the 
opinion of Sir Ralph Abercromby, who, after short 
service, retired from its command as involving, in 
his opinion, duties unworthy of a soldier. On Feb- 
ruary 2^, 1798, this gallant officer, in an official re- 
port, declared that he had found the force " in such 
a state of licentiousness that must render it formi- 
dable to every one but the enemy ! " Of the yeo- 
manry in particular Lord Cornwallis, on July 8th, 
or less than three weeks after his appointment to 
the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, wrote the following 
scathing denunciation to Lord Portland : 

" The Irish militia are totally without discipline ; 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 63 

contemptible before the enemy when serious resist- 
ance is made to them, but ferocious and crue! in 
the extreme when any poor wretches, either with 
or without arms, come within their power ; in short, 
murder appears to be their favorite pastime." 
Writing to General Ross, the lord-lieutenant fur- 
thermore declared that England was engaged " in 
a war of plunder and massacre ; " and, after refer- 
ring to court-martial executions, continued : " But 
all this is trifling compared to the numberless mur- 
ders that are hourly committed by our people with- 
out any process of examination whatever." 

No comments of the historian, however unbi- 
assed he be, can carry the weight that attaches to 
these statements of the two most chivalrous British 
officers of the day. 

The first English commander to receive intelli- 
gence of the French landing at Killala was Major- 
General John Hely Hutchinson, stationed with a 
large force in the town of Galway. Without await- 
ing instructions from his superior, the Marquis of 
Cornwallis, he resolved to march northward with all 
his available troops, leaving the southern section to 
take care of itself as best it could, both against a 
possible rebellion or another French descent. His 
corps was composed of the Kerry militia, recruited 
in Galway, some Kilkenny yeomanry from Lough- 
rea, a body of Longford militia from Gort, a detach- 
ment of so-called Royal Roxburgh Fencible Dra- 
goons under the command of Lord Roden, several 



64 THE FRENCH INVASION 

companies of a Highland regiment known as the 
Fraser Fencibles, and four six-pounders and a how- 
itzer served by men of the Royal Irish Artillery. 

Almost simultaneously with this movement of 
troops from the south occurred a still more for- 
midable one from the west. Lord Cornwallis was 
apprised of the invasion on the 24th of August. 
With his usual energy he took immediate measures 
to meet the emergency, and as a preliminary step 
despatched General Gerard Lake to the town of 
Galway to conduct the operations commenced from 
that point. Then, collecting as many troops as 
could be spared in the east, he started in person 
for Connaught. He arrived at PhillipstoAvn on the 
26th with the One Hundredth Regiment Royal In- 
fantry, the First and Second of Light Infantry, and 
the flank companies of the Buck and Warwick mili- 
tia. Two days later the army had already reached 
the village of Kilbeggan, forty-four miles further 
west — a fact that speaks well for the endurance of 
the troops and the resolution of their commander. 

Having completed his arrangements for an offen- 
sive movement, Humbert, on the other hand, on the 
morning of August 24th left Killala with the major 
portion of his army — if, indeed, his handful of men 
may be dignified by this term — and struck for the 
south. His primary object was to drive the enemy 
from Ballina, after which he intended marching on 
to Castlebar, the county town of Mayo, where he 
had learned that a concentration of troops was con- 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 65 

templated. He hoped by a march into the interior 
to enlist every Catholic in the cause of Irish liberty, 
and thus add to his feeble strength ; for, to tell the 
truth, the results of the two first days' recruiting 
had been a bitter disappointment to him. A goodly 
proportion of the raw levies, after realizing that 
their deliverers were thoroughly determined to pre- 
vent the plundering of the Protestants, had simply 
dropped out of the ranks and settled down at a safe 
distance to await developments. 

Before long the vanguard of the French force 
espied the British troops posted in an advantageous 
position a few miles north of Ballina. Major Kerr 
had received considerable reenforcements, including 
some veteran cavalry, and had boldly pressed for- 
ward to encounter the foe. As on the two previous 
occasions, Sarrazin led the attack of the French. 
His detachment consisted of the grenadiers — about 
two hundred picked men — and one battalion of the 
line. Dismounting from his horse, he placed him- 
self at the head of the foremost column, and with a 
theatrical gesture, calculated to impress his men — 
French soldiers have ever been impressed by trifles 
— ordered the advance at double-quick. 'M la 
baionette " was his battle-cry, and it reechoed all 
along the line ; and the blue-coated troopers sprang 
with their wonted agility over the broken ground 
and threw themselves against the front ranks of the 
enemy with an irresistible //«;/. Still, Major Kerr 
was not unprepared for the attack, and the rapid 
5 



66 THE FRENCH INVASION 

but regular platoon firing of the yeomanry and cara- 
bineers might have proved an effectual check even 
to the veteran grenadiers had not General-Adjutant 
Fontaine turned the flank of the British position, 
and poured in his volleys almost on their rear. See- 
ing himself in danger of being surrounded, Major 
Kerr sounded the retreat, which became a disor- 
derly rout when Humbert appeared in person with 
a detachment of the third regiment of Chasseurs 
mounted on horses obtained in Killala.' 

' The author of this sketch considers it incumbent upon him to 
point out that very serious discrepancies exist in the different ac- 
counts of these preliminary military operations following upon the 
landing of the French. Humbert, for instance, in his report to the 
Directorj', distinctly refers to two skirmishes having occurred north 
of Ballina, one on the 6th Fructidor (23d of August), and the other 
on the following day, as narrated above. 

Fontaine, on the other hand, speaks of three different engage- 
ments as having taken place between the capture of Killala and the 
final occupation of Ballina. The first fight was the result of a recon- 
noissance undertaken by General Sarrazin and Captain Huet and a 
body of grenadiers. The enemy was " four hundred strong and was 
easily dispersed." The second engagement occurred on the 7th 
Fructidor (August 24th), and its details as given by Fontaine tally 
with Humbert's report. The third engagement took place on the 
morning of the 25th under the walls of Ballina, the British number- 
ing " 1,300 infantry and 700 cavalry ! " This last affair is evidently 
a product of the writer's vivid imagination. 

According to Bishop Stock's account, there was but one engage- 
ment, which he describes as follows: He (Humbert) sent on the 
next morning (August 23d) toward Ballina a detachment, which, re- 
treating from some piquet guards or reconnoitring parties of loyal- 
ists, led them to a bridge under which lay concealed a sergeant's 
guard of French soldiers. By a volley from these, a clergyman who 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 67 

The town of BalHna presented a scene of unutter- 
able confusion when the defeated troops arrived 
there, all begrimed and gory. The inhabitants of 
both persuasions sought refuge in their homes, the 
Catholics from fear of the fugitives, the Protestants 
from fear of the French. One luckless individual 
by the name of Walsh, who had previously been 
arrested on suspicion of disloyalty, but discharged 
for lack of evidence, was caught in the act of incit- 
ing his fellow-citizens to rebellion. Brought before 
Major Kerr, a commission was found in his pockets, 
signed by Humbert, authorizing him to gather re- 
cruits for the Irish Republic. Without a trial of 
any kind he was taken to a crane in the market- 
place and unceremoniously strung up amid the 
hooting of the soldatcska and the piteous appeals of 
his friends.' This was the first of a long series of 
acts of reprisal committed by the king's troops on 
the unfortunate rebels of Connaught. It was no 
new pastime to the former. Their hands had 
already been deeply steeped in the blood of Irish 

had volunteered on the occasion and two carabineers were wounded, 
the first mortally. The clergyman was the Rev. George Fortescu^, 
rector of Ballina. The French, advancing to this town, took posses- 
sion of it in the night, the garrison retreating to Foxford, leaving 
one prisoner, a yeoman, in the hands of the enemy. 

In view of these discrepancies, the author has deemed it best to 
accept Humbert's official report as the correct version, and the more 
so as it is corroborated in the main by Sir Richard Musgrave, the 
Tory authority. 

* Musgrave's Memoirs, page 577, and Jones' Narrative, page 289. 



68 THE FRENCH INVASION 

insurgents in Wexford, Ulster and elsewhere. They 
had grown callous to the dictates of humanity. 

The immediate consequences of the second en- 
gagement north of Ballina were the evacuation of 
this town by the royal troops, and the accession to 
the French ranks of another small corps of Irish 
recruits. Humbert's field force thus amounted 
to something over 800 Frenchmen and 1,000 or 
1,500 native auxiliaries. The balance of the in- 
vading army, numbering 200 rank and file and five 
ofificers, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel 
Charost, had been left in Killala for different rea- 
sons. They were needed there to guard a large 
quantity of ammunition landed by the squadron the 
day preceding its departure for France,' and also 
to assure the safety of the Protestant population, 
daily threatened by the more desperate of the 
United Irishmen. Further, it was feared that an 
English force from Sligo might attempt a landing 
at Killala for the purpose of cutting off Humbert's 
communications, unless the town were adequately 
protected by a disciplined body of troops. Hum- 
bert did not resume his march until the 25th. At 
three o'clock in the afternoon he moved toward the 
village of Rappa,^ and remained there until two in 
the morning, the delay being caused principally by 

' Savary, in his letter to the Minister .of Marine a month later, 
declared his sudden departure from Killala to have been caused by a 
fear of impending tempestuous weather. 

* Humbert's Official Reports to the Directory, dated from Castlebar. 




■Sariazin, by a happy inspiration, stepped up to the crane, threw 
Ills arms around the inanimate form, and im- 

]irinted a kiss on the li\-id brow." —Page 69. 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 69 

the difficulties in dealing with his new allies, who, 
as previously stated, lacked every kind of military 
training. 

Sarrazin in the mean time had followed close 
upon the heels of the retreating British. On the 
afternoon of the skirmish with Kerr, with drawn 
sabre, at the head of his grenadiers and chasseurs, 
he entered the deserted streets of Ballina. As they 
neared the market square the outlines of a sus- 
pended figure became discernible against the white 
background of a whitewashed building. It was the 
body of the unfortunate Walsh. When the entire 
column came up and the identity of the dead man 
was established, Sarrazin, by a happy inspiration, 
stepped up to the crane, threw his arms around the 
inanimate form, and imprinted a kiss on the livid 
brow. " Voi/a, Messieurs,'' he cried, turning to the 
Irish auxiliaries, " thus do we honor the martyrs of 
your sacred cause." Major O'Keon translated the 
words into the native vernacular, and the assem- 
blage, now swelled by two-thirds of the town's 
inhabitants, joined in a deafening shout of applause. 
Each company, in passing the swaying body, dipped 
its colors and presented arms, and, each in his turn, 
the different commanders stepped up to the corpse 
and gave it the embrace of " sympathetic civism." 
Had the entire comedy been prearranged instead 
of being a clever impromptu, it could not have 
passed off more propitiously, or made so deep an 
impression on the spectators. 



yO THE FRENCH INVASION 

The experiences of the last few days had taught 
the French that the deeply rooted religious senti- 
ments of the native Irish must be respected, and 
with that faculty for adapting themselves to circum- 
stances which seems to be inherent in the Gaul, the 
invaders decided to turn these very sentiments to 
the best possible account. Accordingly, after in- 
dulging in the little scene just described, Sarrazin 
ordered Walsh's body to be cut down and carried to 
the nearest Romish chapel. Here it was attired in 
a French military suit, placed in a handsome cofifin 
and laid out in state, surrounded by burning tapers 
and mourners with crucifixes and censers. And all 
this to the tune of the "Marseillaise" and " ^a 
Ira," and the sacriligious jests — fortunately not un- 
derstood by those at whom they were directed — of 
the French Republican soldiery ! 

The French did not stop here in their efforts to 
conciliate the Catholic element. They were playing 
a desperate game, and appreciating that everything 
was at stake, they hesitated at no measure, short of 
compliance with the demanded persecution of the 
Protestants, that would insure the most efficient aid 
from that source. Acting under instructions from 
the commander-in-chief, O'Keon mounted a ros- 
trum in the market-place of Ballina and told the 
assembled throng the following interesting story in 
Irish : He dreamt one night, he said, that the Holy 
Mother of God visited his bedside and poured into 
his ear the story of Ireland's suffering and woe. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 7^ 

This done, she called upon him to arise, return 
home, and battle in the cause of Irish freedom. 
The speaker declared that he at first regarded the 
apparition as an idle dream, unworthy of serious 
consideration ; but a few nights later the visit was 
repeated. This time she bemoaned in still more 
melancholic accents the condition of his mother 
country, and urged him once more to return home. 
Still taking no notice of the warning, the speaker 
received a third visit, his heavenly guest making 
herself felt, as well as heard, by administering a 
sharp box on his ear. Convinced by this mani- 
festation that the Madonna's order was seriously 
meant, O'Keon repaired to the French Directory 
and persuaded them to undertake this expedition ! 
He assured his hearers that the success of the 
enterprise must be a foregone conclusion, as the 
Holy Mother had herself advised it and would 
never abandon her faithful followers.' O'Keon's 
harangue was received with every demonstration 
of delight by the impressionable peasantry, not one 
of whom appeared to doubt a single word of it. 

Humbert entered Ballina early on Sunday, the 
26th, with the main body, but his stay there was 
very short. Peasants came in during the morning 
with the information that the enemy's forces at 
Castlebar were hourly increasing. General Hutch- 
inson had arrived there, they said, with his Galway 
division, and recnforcements were constantly join- 

' Musgrave's Memoirs, page 583. 



/^2 FRENCH INVA SION OF IRELAND. 

ing him.^ This was, therefore, no time for dilly- 
dallying. After a few hours' rest the French gen- 
eral, with his entire corps, moved out of Ballina 
toward the capital of Mayo. It was three o'clock 
in the afternoon, and threatening clouds were gath- 
ering on the horizon. The heavens, the landscape, 
and the prospects of the marching hundreds seemed 
equally gloomy. 

* These reenforcements comprised the troops mentioned by Corn- 
wallis in his letter of August 25 th to the Duke of Portland. " Sev- 
eral regiments," he wrote, " were moving from the southeast part of 
the island toward Connaught before we heard of the landing of the 
French." 



CHAPTER V. 

The Theatre of Operations — Weary March of the French and Irish 
— Scenes in Castlebar — The Battle — Panic and Flight of the 
Britinh. 




UMBERT'S theatre of op- 
erations belonged to one of 
the most picturesque por- 
tions of Ireland. A remote 
corner of the country, little 
visited by outsiders, its rug- 
ged aspect had remained 
unchanged for centuries. 
Its physical formation was most va- 
|5^^ ried in nature : rocky heights and 

precipitous cliffs, covered with brush and heather, 
alternating with verdant plains, upon which browsed 
well-fed cattle. The banks of the River Moy, 
which empties its waters into the Bay of Killala, 
had been the scene of many ah episode in early 
Irish history, and traces of a greater past were vis- 
ible on all sides. The romantic ruins of Rosskerk, 
Belleck and Moyne abbeys — the theme of many 
a poet's song — lying between Killala and Ballina, 



74 THE FRENCH INVASION 

attested to the artistic and architectural glories of 
a generation unfettered by the chains of the con- 
queror. In short, nature and history had combined 
to add to the poetry impregnating the very air of 
this most thoroughly Celtic section of the Green 
Isle. 

There are two roads leading from Ballina to Cas- 
tlebar. One almost skirts the River Moy to the 
town of Foxford, after which it turns to the south- 
west. This was the usual route chosen by travel- 
lers. The other one branches from Ballina in a 
westerly direction, winding around Lough Conn, a 
lake noted for the majestic beauty of its rocky 
banks. At the town of Crossmalina the road turns 
abruptly southward and crosses the mountains of 
Fanogue. It passes under the shadow of the great 
Nephin, an imposing mountain over 2,000 feet high, 
and at a point called Barnageehy becomes a narrow 
defile that, properly defended, could defy the as- 
saults of another Xerxes. About fifteen miles in a 
direct line south of Crossmalina lies Castlebar, in a 
plain near a large lough. The capital of the county, 
it is the point of convergence of numerous roads 
and highways. A small river flows by the town, 
and is crossed by a stone bridge of ancient con- 
struction. The name of Castlebar is derived from 
a fortress of the De Burgh family, long since a ruin. 
Sir Henry Bingham held the castle for Parliament 
in the old Cromwellian days, and, besieged by Lord 
Mayo in 1641, he surrendered it on favorable condi- 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 7$ 

tions. These, however, were treacherously violated, 
and he and the entire garrison were put to the 
sword. Mayo's treachery was avenged twelve 
years later on his son. Sir Theodore Burke, who 
suffered death at the headsman's hands. At the 
time of our narrative Castlebar was a fairly prosper- 
ous city of about 3,000 inhabitants, exclusive of 
the military. It possessed a strong stone jail, a 
court-house, and the usual county offices, 'situated 
in a square in the centre of the town. Its long 
main thoroughfare was intersected by smaller and 
narrower ones, eminently adapted to street war- 
fare. 

The English army from Galway, under Major- 
Generals Hutchinson and Trench, reached Castlebar 
late at night on the 24th of August. At the same 
time Brigadier-General Robert Taylor, commandant 
of the garrison of Sligo, had approached from the 
northeast with a considerable force. When he 
entered Foxford he found written orders from 
Hutchinson directing him to remain there and 
await the French, who were expected to select 
that route in preference to the one by Barnageehy. 
In spite of Hutchinson's executive ability and his 
popularity among his men, so great had become the 
demoralization of the army that preparations for 
encountering the invaders were attended with the 
greatest difficulty. Fights and broils between the 
regulars and the militia were of hourly occurrence, 
and even indulgence in intoxicating liquors seems 



*]() THE FRENCH INVASION 

to have been not infrequent. The disgraceful 
scenes reached their climax on Sunday night, the 
26th, after the main body of the Longford militia 
had entered town. The men were bivouacked on 
the green, eating bread and cheese, when a shot, 
discharged from a window close by, fell in their 
midst. Immediately a stupendous uproar ensued. 
" In the dark of the night," wrote an eye-witness, 
" four thousand enraged soldiers in the town ! 
A noise arose — the clamor of irritated passions. 
Arms clashed against each other, and glass flew 
from windows, whilst the enraged men called for 
vengeance on the culprit. The general shouted for 
the officer commanding (Captain Chambers) to 
stand in the street until the affair should be over. 
The fellow who fired the shot fled off when he 
thought he had kindled a flame which would 
destroy the town. I am told if there had not 
been instant peace the general would have caused 
the cannon to be brought to bear on the street 
and swept it with grapeshot ; but glory to the 
Prince of Peace! he gave us a silent street in ten 
minutes." ' 

The writer of the above was an old inhabitant of 
Castlebar, who, being thoroughly well acquainted 
with the surrounding country, drew out a detailed 
map thereof on the night of the 26th, and sent it to 
General Hutchinson. His guest on this occasion 
was Captain Chambers, one of the few real heroes 

' Jones' A^armtive, page 2go. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 77 

of the royal army. As an illustration of the piet- 
istic spirit prevailing among Protestants in those 
days, it may not be uninteresting to quote the fol- 
lowing anecdote from the same authority : 

"A little before day (August 27)," he says, "my 
wife told me: 'I will see the battle in the street, 
having in a dream beheld flags — a green, and 
another of a different color.' We then agreed to 
consult the Bible. I first opened for our army, 
2 Kings, vii. 7: 'Wherefore they arose and flecj in 
the twilight, and left their tents, and their houses, 
even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.' 
We next opened for our country, Jer. v. 15 : ' Lo, I 
will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of 
Israel, saith the L')rd ; it is a mighty nation, it is an 
ancient nation, a nation whose language thou know- 
est not, neither understandest what they say.' I 
next opened for our king, Psalms, Ixi. 7 : ' He shall 
abide before God forever : O prepare mercy and 
truth which may preserve him.' I lastly opened 
for my wife and myself, John, xiii. 7 : ' Jesus 
answered and said unto him : ' What I do thou 
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.' 
From all these I concluded that we should lose that 
battle, but that the king and constitution would 
still be upheld." 

Unfortunately for the arms of England, General 
Hutchinson was not destined to lead the king's 
troops in the coming struggle. On Saturday night, 
between ten and eleven o'clock, General Lake, the 



78 THE FRENCH INVASION 

ruthless exterminator of thousands of patriots in 
the county of Wexford, rode into Castlebar with 
his staff and took command of the army. Almost 
from the moment of his arrival disagreements 
arose between him and Hutchinson.' The latter, 
though sufTering from a severe attack of fever, had 
taken pains to study the topography of the sur- 
roundings, and had inspected every inch of ground 
within a radius of many miles, the result being a 
very efficient and comprehensive plan of opera- 
tions, which, if carried out, say the apologists of 
the English, would have effectually disposed of 
Humbert and his weak force. Lake, however, be- 
longed to that class of Englishmen, unfortunately 
very large, who entertain a supreme contempt for 
foreigners of every description, among others for 
the French. He had been brought up from boy- 
hood to believe that one English soldier was a 
match for at least two Frenchmen, three Spaniards, 
four Dutchmen, and an inconceivable number of 
savages — a pleasant delusion that even his partici- 
pation in the inglorious campaigns in the Nether- 
lands against revolutionary France does not seem 
to have materially affected. He was a tried soldier, 
however, having entered the army at the age of 
fourteen, and had won laurels during the Seven 
Years' War in Germany, and under Cornwallis in 
America. Martinet and Tory, he detested all rebels 
from the bottom of his heart. Hence his selection 

' Reverend J. Gordon's History of the Rebellion. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 79 

by the British Ministry to succeed the mild and hu- 
mane Abercromby. In suppressing the uprising in 
Wexford, he had not failed to give vent to his pas- 
sionate hatred of revolution in any form, as the 
thousands of desolated homes and orphaned fami- 
lies fully attested. 

When news arrived at the British headquarters at 
Castlebar that Humbert's army, on the march from 
Ballina, exclusive of the Irish corps, fell short of 
eight hundred regulars, Lake thrust aside Hutchin- 
son's maps and plans with a gesture of disdain. 
Lord Jocelin's " Fox Hunters," he declared, would 
sufifice to account for so insignificant a foe, even if 
Taylor failed to hold his own at Foxford. The 
" Fox Hunters " were a body of light horse at- 
tached to Lake's cavalry, who had distinguished 
themselves at the Curragh of Kildare, a short time 
before, by treacherously butchering in cold blood a 
division of rebel prisoners. The unfortunates had 
surrendered on the express stipulation that their 
lives should be spared. 

During all this time General Humbert's army was 
slowly but steadily plodding on its way to Castle- 
bar. The French general had been informed by 
one Father Conroy, the parish priest of Adergool, 
of the Barnageehy route, and had resolved to follow 
it in preference to the one by Foxford. But in 
order to deceive the British he first marched his 
army some distance down the Foxford road, and 
then at nightfall suddenly turned to his right and 



8o THE FRENCH INVASION 

proceeded toward Crossmalina. Father Conroy 
rendered another important service to Humbert. 
Learning that a man named William Burke had 
been despatched to the British commander with 
information as to the route of the French, he over- 
took the messenger and made him retrace his steps 
and take the United Irishmen's oath. Both Conroy 
and Burke were afterward hanged at Castlebar by 
sentence of an English court-martial. 

Many were the hardships of the army during its 
tramp over the Fanogue Mountains. Heavy rains 
had made the roads almost impassable, and when 
the men were not stumbling over rocks or into 
crevices they found themselves up to their kn^es 
in incipient bogs. The two curricle guns and the 
ammunition wagons, drawn by farm horses, proved 
a serious obstacle to the advance, for they were 
constantly sticking in the mud. In fact, the poor 
beasts soon became entirely unserviceable, and had 
to be replaced by the Irish peasantry, who per- 
formed the tedious task with cheerfulness. The 
carriage of one of the guns broke down, and its 
repairing delayed the army a couple of hours. Yet 
no signs of faltering were visible on the counte- 
nances of the weary but determined men. The 
French had surmounted greater dil^culties than 
these in their former campaigns, and had never 
known defeat. They hummed snatches of patriotic 
songs to keep up their spirits, and exchanged com- 
pliments with the Irish contingent, some of whom 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. Ol 

aroused no little good-natured mirth by their awk- 
ward movements and unsuccessful attempts to 
assume a martial bearing. Not an incident oc- 
curred during the whole march to ruffle the har- 
monious relations of the allies, so different in senti- 
ments and temperament. 

With the dawn of day the column emerged from 
the pass of Barnageehy and descended into the vale 
beyond. A Protestant yeoman, who was visiting 
his farm in the vicinity, saw a line of blue coats in 
the distance, and dismayed beyond measure, sped to 
Castlebar with the intelligence. His story obtained 
no credence, so convinced were the British com- 
manders that Humbert had chosen the Foxford 
route ; but to make entirely sure, General Trench 
set out in person to reconnoitre, attended by a few 
dragoons. The party rode three miles in a north- 
erly direction, when they were fired upon by a 
French picket. There was no doubt about it now. 
The French were coming, and at a rapid pace, too ! 
The horsemen whipped up their steeds and gal- 
loped back to Castlebar, with feelings akin to those 
experienced by the yeoman. 

In a few moments after their arrival the stillness 
of the morn was broken by the sound of alarm 
bells, the bugle's blast, and the shouts and vocifera- 
tions of the excited soldiery. Realizing the gravity 
of the situation and his own helplessness. General 
Lake gave Hutchinson carte blanche to arrange the 
troops in line of battle. Hutchinson at once sent 




82 THE FRENCH INVASION 

orderlies to the various division commanders with 
instructions to march to an elevation at the north- 
east extremity of the town, known as Mount Bur- 
ren, which had been selected the day before as an 
alarm post. A good deal of confusion resulted 
from the unexpectedness of the alarm, but within 
an hour some order was restored, and when the sun 
burst out from over the hillocks on the east the 
British army, about 6,000 strong, with 18 guns, was 
drawn up in an imposing battle array, prepared to 
receive the enemy. 

It is well to state that this calculation as to the 
strength of the English at Castlebar is based on the 
most reliable authority. It is true that General 
Hutchinson, in an oflficial statement submitted' to 
Lord Cornwallis a month later,' placed the num- 
bers of the loyalists at " 1,600, or 1,700 cavalry and 
infantry, 10 pieces of cannon and one howitzer," 
and his testimony is evidently accepted as unim- 
peachable by Mr. Froude and the few other British 
historians who have deigned to notice the affair of 
August 27th, 1798. But if any credence can be 
placed in Sir Richard Musgrave's account of the 
battle — and it is certainly the most detailed in ex- 
istence — Hutchinson's estimate falls very far short 
of the truth. Musgrave, as a loyalist, carefully 
avoids mentioning figures altogether; but as he 
gives a list of the various infantry regiments pres- 

■ This statemenl is included in the Correspondence of the Marquis 
of Cornwallis. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 83 

ent on the field, it is comparatively easy to approx- 
imate their numerical strength, which by the low- 
est calculation must have aggregated 5,000 men. 
Francis Plowden, another writer of the day, also a 
loyalist, but one of a far different calibre to Mus- 
grave in breadth of mind, declares Lake's army to 
have " fallen little short of 6,000 men," including 
the cavalry, an assertion supported by many actors 
in the short and bloody drama.' 

" The sudden progress of such a handful of men 
into the very centre of the island," wrote a yeoman 
in Lake's army to his brother in Castlebar, " was, I 
think, a clear comment on the words of Solomon, 
that ' the race is not to the swift nor the battle to 
the strong.' Thus what 6,000 men could not do at 
Castlebar five flank companies and a few cavalry 
effected at Ballinamuck." ^ Equally reliable testi- 
mony in the same direction is furnished by Bishop 
Stock, who says : " The enemy's main body had 
hardly marched from Killala when a flag of truce 
arrived from Castlebar, carried by Captain Grey, of 
the Carabineers. It came under the pretence of in- 

' Here is what Plowden incidentally remarks : " It must ever re- 
main an humiliating reflection upon the lustre and power of the 
British arms that so pitiful a detachment as that of 1,100 French in- 
fantry should, in a kingdom in which there was an armed force of 
above 150,000 men, have not only put to rout a select army of 6,000 
men prepared to receive the invaders, but also provided themselves 
with ordnance and ammunition from our stores, taken several of our 
towns," etc. 

^Jones' Narrative, page 326. 



84 THE FRENCH INVASION 

quiry after an officer who was wounded and made 
prisoner at Ballina, but the object of it was to learn 
the force of the enemy. As soon as this was 
known, Captain Grey privately desired us not to be 
uneasy, for a force equal to three times their num- 
ber was waiting at Castlebar to give a good account 
of them." Captain (or lieutenant) Grey returned to 
Castlebar on Saturday,' the 25th — that is, long be- 
fore the last reenforcement reached that town. 

To reduce the matter to a few words, Humbert's 
army of 800 men — the Irish contingent for reasons 
shortly to be stated need not be included — found 
itself opposed to a force almost eight times its 
superior in size. 

That General Hutchinson, whose conduct through- 
out the engagement was beyond all praise, should 
have rendered himself guilty of wilful misrepre- 
sentation, is only excusable on the ground perhaps 
that he considered himself justified as an officer of 
his Majesty in shielding the reputation of the British 
arms. No such duty devolves on the British his- 
torian, who in this case, however, has only followed 
his time-honored custom of pandering to the inor- 
dinate national vanity of his countrymen. The 
average Englishman goes through life with an 
exalted conviction of Britannia's superiority over 
all other nations. Not content with her unques- 
tioned supremacy on the sea and in the world of 
commerce, he would wish her military record to 

' General Hutchinson's statement, Sept. 21, 1798. 







.^^/^■i^/ 



GENERAL JOHN IIELY HUTCHINSON. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 85 

dazzle the eyes of all creation. So firm a hold has 
this hobby gained upon him that paltry skirmishes 
figure in English history as important battles, and 
mediocre captains are magnified into Caesars and 
Alexanders. Maida ' is mentioned in the same 
breath with Austerlitz, and Wellington, who never 
risked an engagement save when the chances were 
overwhelmingly in his favor, is ranked above the 
great Napoleon. The same tone of empty and 
arrogant boasting pervades alike the pages of most 
English historical works and the utterances of the 
large class of British "Jingoes." But this vanity 
were a bagatelle if the truth were not constantly 
sacrificed on its altar. Chauvinism and mendacity 
flourish in the same soil ! 

The British at Castlebar were drawn up in three 
lines running from east to west across the crest of 
the hill. They commanded a slight elevation in 
front, over which any attacking force from the 
north must necessarily pass. The first line consisted 
of a portion of the artillery, including two curricle 
guns served by men of the Royal Irish Artillery 
under Captain Shortall, an experienced ofificer, the 
Kilkenny Militia, a portion of the 6th Regiment 
of Foot under Major McBean, and a detachment of 
the Prince of Wales' Fencibles. Captain Shortall 
himself took post with the two curricle guns in front 
of the line, the Kilkenny regiment being stationed 

'An insignificant and indecisive skirmish fought July 4, 1806, in 
Calabria. It figures as a great victory in English history. 



86 THE FRENCH INVASION 

at his right and the Kilkenny artillery to his left, 
separated by a road, but parallel to him. The sec- 
ond line was composed of what might be called the 
flower of the army, the Fraser Fencibles — Scotch 
Highlanders in their national tartans, plaids, and 
feathers, who had fought bravely throughout the 
rebellion without dimming the lustre of their arms 
by acts of wanton cruelty. The Erasers were sup- 
ported by a corps of Galway militiamen, both bod- 
ies having been drawn up in irregular lines so as to 
fully occupy the summits of the British position. 
In a valley on the left of the elevation held by the 
Kilkenny troops stood several companies of Long- 
ford yeomanry. 

However, the strength of Lake's army lay prin- 
cipally in its cavalry, which comprised some of 
the best troops in the king's service. There 
was " Lord Jocelin's Light Horse," already men- 
tioned for their treacherous cruelty in Kildare ; 
there was the 6th Carabineers; the 23d Light Dra- 
goons ; Lord Roden's Roxborough Fencible Cav- 
alry, and several squadrons of yeomanry horse.' 
The bulk of this imposing body of mounted men 
occupied a large space in the rear of the first line, 
Lake's apparent intention being to throw them 
upon the foe as soon as the artillery and musketry 
fire had sown confusion in his ranks. Among 
the officers commanding the king's forces were 
a number of English and Anglo-Irish noblemen 

' C. H. Teeling's Personal Narrative, p. 216. 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 87 

who had promised themselves good sport shoot- 
ing down the Sdns-ciilottes and hanging the " crop- 
pies." ' It never occurred to them that, with a 
tremendous numerical superiority in favor of the 
British, the choice of position, and an enemy ex- 
hausted by fifteen hours' steady marching, any 
other result could be possible ! 

When, toward eight o'clock. General Humbert 
and his staff arrived within sight of the British lines 
and beheld the heights scarlet with the uniforms of 
the regulars and militia, they concluded within them- 
selves that the game was lost in advance. At a 
glance they recognized the fact that the one possi- 
bility they had counted on, viz., a surprise of the 
enemy, was out of the question. Nothing now re- 
mained to counterbalance his weight of numbers 
and his almost unassailable front. Humbert decided 
that if he were destined to succumb he would at 
least maintain the honor of his flag. He accord- 
ingly took immediate measures to attack the British 
position. He first formed a column from the ranks 
of the Irish insurgents, and sent them ahead to drive 
in the English outposts and commence the assault 
on the foremost line of artillery. Close behind the 
Irish followed General Sarrazin with the Grenadiers. 
Short work was made of the outposts, and elated 
by their easy success the simple-minded peasants, 

' "Croppy" was a term of opprobrium applied by the king's 
troops to the rebels. It originated from the fact that the latter wore 
their hair cropped close to their heads. 



88 THE FRENCH INVASION 

many of them clad in the French uniform, made a 
bold dash at the enemy's guns. Not a sound issued 
from these until the assailants were within fifty 
yards. Then Captain Shortall gave the signal, the 
gunners applied their fuses, and the head of the 
attacking column was literally split in twain, the 
messengers of destruction leaving a furrow thickly 
strewn with dead and dying. The survivors — most 
of whom in their unfrequented regions had never, 
perhaps, until that day heard the report of a musket, 
much less witnessed the effects of artillery fire — 
were overwhelmed with terror. They turned upon 
their heels and sped down the mountain side in 
wild confusion. They took no further share in the 
battle of Castlebar. 

It was now the turn of the French to face 
Shortall's fire. Sarrazin's Grenadiers, undisturbed 
by the precipitate flight of their allies, marched 
steadily up the slope with fixed bayonets, and 
approached the British centre. At the same time a 
battalion of the line moved toward the British left. 
The French were aided in their movements by the 
peculiar formation of the ground, which, intersected 
by stone walls and high hedges, afforded them 
excellent shelter against the small-arms' fire of the 
enemy. Sarrazin's first attack, however, proved a 
failure. The English artillery, superbly served, 
once more performed its deadly office. One of 
Shortall's shots cut clean through the infantry 
battalion, who, seeing themselves taken at a disad- 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 89 

vantage, ran to the cover of a small house near by. 
The Grenadiers then wheeled half way, and under a 
galling musketry and artillery fire rushed to the 
relief of their brethren. After this the attacking 
force retreated down the slope, leaving many dead 
and wounded. A very brief period intervened 
before the next attack. The French this time 
attempted to neutralize the effects of the enemy's 
marksmanship by driving some cattle in front of 
them, but such of the poor brutes as were not 
shot down at the first discharge scampered, terror- 
stricken, into the very ranks they were intended to 
screen, nearly causing irremediable disorder. 

So far the tide of fortune had been against the 
assailants, yet from this very circumstance there 
gleamed for Humbert a ray of hope. The inertness 
of the British, and their neglect to follow up their 
advantages, satisfied him that they were badly led. 
The moment had therefore arrived to hazard a bold 
stroke — no less than a general attack along the 
whole length of the enemy's Hne ! To do this it 
became necessary to extend the French front until 
it should overlap his left wing. At the word of 
command the sturdy little Frenchmen deployed 
from the centre with the rapidity and precision of a 
dress-parade, and when they commenced their next 
advance up the steep incline the British looked 
down in amazement on a long, thin line of blue in 
open order, its full strength not exceeding five hun- 
dred bayonets ! Was this skeleton force about to 



90 THE FRENCH INVASION 

brave the entire British front ? Such audacity was 
scarcely conceivable.' 

It was a critical moment. A combine'd effort of 
the English would probably have given the day to 
them. As it was, the infantry supporting the guns 
seemed to have lost their heads. Instead of await- 
ing their foe at close quarters they commenced 
firing in a desultory fashion at so great a distance 
as to produce no effect. Orders of any kind from 
the commanding general were lacking, and the 
splendid cavalry corps stood inactive within its 
lines. Only the Highlanders posted behind a fringe 
of bushes on the British left and the artillery ap- 
peared to understand their duty, and to perform it. 

' Contemporaneous descriptions of the physique and morale of the 
contending forces form an interesting contrast. Of the French, 
Bishop Stock says: " Intelligence, activity, temperance, patience, to 
a surprising degree, appeared to be combined in the soldiery that 
came over with Humbert, together with the exactest obedience to 
discipline ; yet, if you except the Grenadiers, they had nothing to 
catch the eye. Their stature for the most part was low, their com- 
plexion pale and sallow, their clothes much the worse for wear ; to a 
superficial observer they would have appeared incapable of enduring 
almost any hardship. These were the men, however, of whom it 
was presently observed that they could be well content to live on 
bread or potatoes, to drink water, to make the stones of the street 
their bed, and to sleep in their clothes with no cover but the canopy 
of heaven." 

Speaking of Lake's men, the Under Secretary for Ireland, in his 
letter to William Wickham, Aug. 31, 1798, remarks that they are 
" fine regiments in appearance, fine men and well drilled, capable in 
point of body, youth and agility, and habilit^ to face any troops." 
Cotrespondence of the Marquis of Cotnwallis, page 393. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g$. 9 1 

Perceiving the lack of cohesion among the Brit- 
ish, Sarrazin ordered the Pas de charge sounded, 
and the French rushed forward to some hedges 
immediately in the enemy's front. Under cover 
of these they continued to advance in separate 
bodies, uttering the while their war cries and 
firing as rapidly as they could reload. As they 
came nearer some confusion was perceptible in 
the English ranks. The artillery was vomiting 
grape and canister, but the fire of the infantry had 
slackened. Now that the soldiers of the republic 
were at hand with their deadly bayonets, the war- 
riors of his Majesty felt their hearts fail within 
them. Some one raised the cry that the French 
were on the flanks, and of a sudden the entire 
British infantry — regulars, yeomen and Fencibles — 
wavered, broke and beat a hasty retreat, leaving 
on the field Major Alcock, sorely wounded, and 
many others dead and dying. Sarrazin's men en- 
gaged the artillery on the right of the enemy's posi- 
tion, while Chief of Battalion Ardouin attacked the 
Frasers and the Galway men on the left. Shortall 
had already lost his best soldiers, but instead of 
retiring he pulled up his sleeves and took a stand 
at one of the guns himself. A French officer 
rushed toward him with levelled weapon, and miss- 
ing fire, drew his sword. The intrepid Englishman, 
like many of his compatriots an adept at the manly 
art of boxing, doubled up his fists and knocked his 
opponent down. He then mounted his horse and 



92 THE FRENCH INVASION 

rode away with the same cool and deliberate air 
that had signallized his deportment throughout the 
engagement. 

The astonishing behavior of the infantry on the 
British right, and the capture of Shortall's guns, so 
alarmed General Lake that he hurriedly ordered 
a retreat, and that in the teeth of Hutchinson's 
opposition.' The command was superfluous. The 
British formation was already a confused mass. 
Infantry, artillery and cavalry, seized with an inde- 
scribable panic, were scurrying to the rear, unheed- 
ing the exhortations of their officers. The cavalry- 
men, gorgeous in scarlet, gold and pipe-clay, with 
powdered wigs and clean-shaven faces — the pride of 
many a review — presented now a sorry aspect as 
they spurred their horses in a mad flight for safety. 
Killing prisoners in cold blood was one thing, and 
meeting a disciplined foe another ! The former 
occupation had unfitted them for the latter. So 
they dashed onward, a disordered horde, riding 
down all who crossed their path, whether friend or 
foe. Of the infantry the Longford and Kilkenny 
regiments were the most demoralized. They, too, 
had revelled in the blood of their unfortunate com- 
patriots, and as cruelty and cowardice are twin 
sisters, fear lent wings to their feet as they fled 
from the scene of action. The Earls of Longford 
and Ormond, their respective commanders, vainly 
endeavored to rally them. They were only drawn 

* Reverend J. Gordon's History of the Rebellion, page 285. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 93 

into the current themselves. Ormond, chief of the 
historic Butlers of Ireland, young, handsome and 
brave, a preiix chevalier from head to foot, threw 
himself among his men, in a frenzy of mortification 
and despair. He implored them impassionately to 
turn and face the foe. Finding they heeded him 
not he lost all self-control, and with curses and im- 
precations laid about him with his sword. He ran 
two men through the body and left the field with 
tears of anger streaming down his cheeks. Even 
when rallied in a churchyard, with a thick wall to 
protect them, the militia refused to make a stand. 
The first appearance of the French caused them to 
scamper over the tombstones like frightened sheep 
and make their way out by the rear entrance.' 

At the bridge over the Castlebar River a horrible 
crush ensued. The main body of the British army 
had converged to that point, and the narrow struc- 
ture was blocked with field guns, caissons and sup- 
ply wagons, against which the struggling mass of 
humanity surged in unreasoning terror. Here it 
was every one for himself, the alternative to the 
luckless foot soldier being death under the hoof or 
a plunge into the waters beneath. To increase the 
confusion some shots fell in among the fugitives, 
and in their desperation they turned their weapons 
against each other. How many perished on the 
bridge has never been fully ascertained, but for 
weeks afterward the river and the lough near by 

' Correspondence of the Marquis of Cormvallis, page 393. 



94 THE FRENCH INVASION 

threw up mutilated corpses in the uniform of the 
British line and of the Anglo-Irish yeomanry. 

But the battle was not yet over. The most des- 
perate fighting was still to come. By the exertions 
of the Earl of Granard, Major Thompson, and Cap- 
tains Chambers and Armstrong, a comparatively 
large body of men were gotten together to cover 
the retreat of the army. This they endeavored to 
do by maintaining a musketry fire from behind 
hedges and thickets on the approaching Sans-cu- 
lottes. Unable to hold their ground they retired to 
the bridge, and took up a position there with a 
curricle gun. At the same moment the Highland- 
ers and some carabineers, after being driven from 
the left wing at the point of the bayonet, stationed 
themselves in the public square of Castlebar, where 
Lieutenant Blundell with two curricle guns had 
been posted early in the morning. To dislodge the 
enemy from both these positions, Humbert de- 
tached his cavalry from his centre and moved it on 
to the town, with some infantry under Sarrazin and 
Adjutant-General Fontaine. 

A Protestant citizen present at the battle thus 
relates some of the details of this conflict : " Colonel 
Miller," he says, " rushed into the town crying : 
' Clear the street for action ! ' when in a moment, as 
a dam bursting its banks, a mixture of soldiers of 
all kinds rushed in at every avenue ; a sergeant de- 
sired that every woman should go to the barracks ; 
but Dr. Hennin's, another family and mine retired 



OF IRELAND IN \8. 95 

into a house, fell on our knees, and there remained 
in prayer until the town was taken. , . . Four 
brave Highlanders at a cannon kept up a brisk fire 
on the French, but were killed while loading, the 
gunner taken, and the guns turned on our men. 
Now the street action became hot ; before it was 
peal answering peal, but now thunder answering 
thunder ; a black cloud of horrors hid the light of 
heaven — the messengers of death groping their 
way, as in gloomy hell, whilst the trembling echoes 
which shook our town concealed the more melan- 
choly groans of the dying. When the French 
approached the new jail, our sentinel (a Fraser Fen- 
cible) killed one Frenchman, charged and killed an- 
other, shot a third and a fourth, and, as he fired at 
and killed the fifth, a number rushed up the steps, 
dashed his brains out, tumbling him from his stand, 
and the sentry-box on his body." 

The street action lasted nearly an hour, during 
which period every foot of ground was obstinately 
disputed. The British, still having the advantage 
of position and numbers, inflicted severe losses on 
their opponents, and were only overcome in the 
end by sheer pluck and hard fighting on the part of 
the latter. Death had no terrors for these sons of 
the republic, even though to them it meant not an 
awakening in another and better world, but chaos 
and an end of all things. Utterly regardless of 
grape and canister, of sword and shell, they flung 
themselves upon the foe. One grenadier, after 



96 THE FRENCH INVASION 

sabring two gunners, placed his thumb on the 
touch-hole of a cannon in time to extinguish the 
burning fuse. He earned his epaulettes for the 
bold deed, which saved the head of the advanc- 
ing column from certain destruction.' Here and 
there the town's defenders succeeded in barricading 
themselves within private dwellings, whence they 
maintained a galling fire through shutters and im- 
provised loopholes of every description, thus neces- 
sitating a series of separate assaults, in which the 
bayonet played as active a role as the bullet. 

When the main portion of the town was in their 
hands the French turned their attention to the 
bridge. There, as has been mentioned, a body of 
British with a curricle gun had taken stand. A 
desperate melde was the result. Worked up to a 
pitch of fury by the bitterness of the preceding 
conflict, neither side gave nor demanded quarter. 
The defenders of the bridge consisted of the rem- 
nants of many of the regiments present on the 
field an hour before. There were some Longford 
and Kilkenny men, a sprinkling of " Frasers," and 
a corporal's guard or so of the 6th Regiment. The 
gun itself was worked by the few remaining sur- 
vivors of Captain Shortall's Royal Irish Artillery 
Corps. The French began by installing themselves 
in the deserted buildings near the river's banks, and 
from here and the roads leading to the bridge they 
poured volley after volley on the enemy. As soon 

' Fontaine's Notice Historique, page 17. 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 97 

as the last gunner had fallen a squadron of French 
horse, emerging from the cover of a neighboring 
house, dashed at the gun, hoping to reach and spike 
it before assistance arrived. In this they were 
foiled by the energy of the British officers in com- 
mand ; but in the hand-to-hand combat that fol- 
lowed fully half of the bridge's defenders were mer- 
cilessly cut down. The Chasseurs lost two of their 
men and drew back ; then, reenforced by the arrival 
of the infantry, they charged once more and swept 
the enemy from the field. 

Acts of heroism were not lacking during the ob- 
stinate struggle. Captain Chambers, on the British 
side, fought like a very demon. With his own 
hand he killed or wounded several Frenchmen, in- 
cluding an officer. Throwing away his sword he 
seized a musket from a soldier's hands and contin- 
ued to fight until a grenadier had run a bayonet 
clear down his throat, and driven the point of it out 
at the side of his neck. A French chasseur, on the 
other hand, received a ball in his right arm. Grasp- 
ing his sword with his left, he went on fighting des- 
perately. Presently a ball entered his left breast ; 
but, still undaunted, he remained on the spot, slash- 
ing at the enemy with might and main. In the end 
a royal soldier pierced him with a bayonet, and the 
brave Frenchman fell to the earth a corpse.' 

Captain of Grenadiers Laugerat was struck by a 
shell which shattered his shoulder. Raising him- 

^ Jones' Narrative of the Insurrection. 



98 THE FRENCH INVASION 

self as well as he could, he continued to encourage 
his men. " Friends," he cried, " do not trouble 
yourselves about me. Go forward to victory ; she 
awaits you. Let me remain here, for I die happy." 
These were his last words. A grenadier of the 
same detachment, being mortally wounded, turned 
to one of his comrades with the words : " Take 
these cartridges ; send them to those rascals." Then 
grasping his gun in a feverish embrace, he ex- 
claimed, " Thus dies a French grenadier ! " Even 
in the last agonies of death the man's love of dis- 
play had not deserted him.' 

While the better men of the British forces were 
spilling their blood in defence of the flag and their 
country's honor, their comrades were speeding over 
the highroad to Holly-mount and Tuam. Lake, 
accompanied by his staff, rode furiously along in 
the midst of the fugitives, with livid face and com- 
pressed lips. He cast not a glance behind him, 
nor heeded the surrounding turmoil. His haughty 
and aggressive spirit was smarting under the humili- 
ation of defeat, for which he knew that he alone 
was to blame. Hutchinson felt the pangs of morti- 
fication no less than his commander, but to him 
this was not a time for vain regrets. He directed 
all his efforts to rallying the men and turning the 
flight into the semblance of an orderly retreat. He 
was not successful. Neither persuasion, commands 
nor threats availed to stem their wild stampede. 

' Fontaine's Notice Historique, page 20. 



,r-"'" 




LAKE'S FLIGHT FROM CASTLEBAK. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 99 

On they rode, hearing a menace in every whisper 
of the wind, a cannonade in every rustling of the 
leaves. Beside this, John Gilpin's famous pace 
sinks to the level of a peddler's jog, nor did Tam 
O'Shanter's Mag e'er display such mettle as their 
panting, sweating beasts, spurred on until the blood 
dripped from their flanks. So great was their fright, 
indeed, that they never stopped for breath until they 
had reached the town of Tuam, forty miles away ; 
and even here they paused scarce long enough to 
eat, and then made on to Athlone. At this place 
an oflficer of carabineers, with sixty of his men, 
arrived on the afternoon of the 29th of September. 
These heroes had covered a distance of over seventy 
English miles in twenty-seven hours ! No wonder 
the battle has been jocularly styled " the races of 
Castlebar " ! 



CHAPTER VI. 

A Disgraceful Incident — Losses on Both Sides— The French indulge 
in the Pleasures of Music and Dancing — General Results of the 
Battle — A Republican Government for Connaught. 




HE flight of the British from 
Castlebar was marked by an 
episode of which two dis- 
tinct and widely different 
versions have been handed 
down by contemporaneous 
writers. According to Brit- 
ish official accounts, a party 
of French dragoons pursued the re- 
treating army above a mile from the 
town and took a piece of cannon, which they were 
on the point of turning on their rear, but a party of 
Lord Roden's Fencibles rescued the gun and killed 
five of them. 

The other side of the story is as follows : It ap- 
pears that when Humbert entered Castlebar and 
witnessed the utter demoralization of the enemy 
he instructed Bartholomew Teeling to secure the 



FRENCH INVASION OF IRELAND. lOI 

swiftest horses in the town for himself and an 
escort, and follow up General Lake with proposals 
for a capitulation of the British army. Teeling 
had greatly distinguished himself during the day. 
He had been in the thickest of the fight, and single- 
handed had captured an English regimental stand- 
ard. Wishing to pay a signal compliment to his 
subordinate, Humbert insisted that he should use 
the trophy as a flag of truce in lieu of the usual 
white bunting. As Teeling with his party crossed 
a small eminence in the rear of the retreating force, 
they were suddenly set upon by a body of horse- 
men, who, disregarding the flag of truce — probably 
not comprehending it — cut down every man but 
Teeling himself. They spared the latter only on 
account of his officer's uniform, but they took him 
along with them a prisoner. Forced to accompany 
the army in its retreat for many a weary mile, 
denied access to General Lake, insulted and threat- 
ened with death, Teeling preserved his dignity and 
stubbornly refused to communicate the purport of 
his message to the various officers who questioned 
him. Therefore no alternative being left to his 
captors, he was at length taken into Lake's pres- 
ence. The commander-in-chief became furious 
when Humbert's words were transmitted to him; 
and well he might, for this was, as he considered, 
heaping insult on injury. Lake expressed indigna- 
tion at the language of the message and indulged 
in personalities, whereupon Teeling protested in 



102 THE FRENCH INVASION 

courteous but decided terms. This only increased 
the Englishman's rage. "You, sir, are an Irish- 
man," he cried. " I shall treat you as a rebel. 
Why have you been selected by General Humbert 
on this occasion?" "To convey to you, sir," was 
the reply, " his proposal in a language which he pre- 
sumes you understand. As to your menace, you 
cannot be ignorant that you have left with us many 
British officers, prisoners at Castlebar." 

Here the interview ended and Lake sullenly 
turned away. Not long after General Hutchinson 
rode up and apologized with every evidence of 
sincerity for the rash act of his cavalry. He also 
brought an apology from General Lake — who had 
apparently reconsidered matters — coupled with the 
request that the French commander desist from 
reprisals. Teeling was given full permission to re- 
turn to Castlebar, and an escort was placed at his 
disposal. He declined the escort, but insisted on a 
surrender of his flag of truce — a demand that caused 
some hesitation on Hutchinson's part, yet was com- 
plied with in the end. Accompanied by that officer 
to the limits of the British lines, Teeling set out for 
Castlebar. He arrived there early in the evening, 
anxiously awaited by Humbert, whose apprehen- 
sions for his safety had increased with his prolonged 
absence. A man of violent temper when aroused, 
Humbert swore dire vengeance on the murderers of 
Teeling's unfortunate companions, and it required 
all the Irishman's persuasive powers to calm his 



OP IRELAND m 'gS. IO3 

wrath and bring him to a more reasonable view of 
the matter.' 

The battle of Castlebar cost the British dear. It 
is true that the official report places the casualties 
at " one sergeant and fifty-two rank and file killed ; 
two lieutenants, three sergeants, and twenty-nine 
rank and file wounded ; two majors, three captains, 
six lieutenants, three ensigns, two staff, ten ser- 
geants, two drummers, and two hundred and fifty- 
one rank and file missing — also nine field pieces." 
But the testimony of many participants goes to 
prove that these figures underestimate the loss. 
Humbert, in his report to the French Directory, 
puts the enemy's casualties at " 1,800 men — of which 
600 were killed or wounded and 1,200 prisoners 
— ten pieces of cannon, five stand of colors, 1,200 
fire-locks, and almost all the baggage." Here again 
there is a palpable misstatement, although an ex- 
cusable one under the circumstances. In order to 
keep up the interest at home in the progress of 
the expedition, and to secure the much-needed 
reinforcements and supplies, the French general 
felt justified in resorting to such exaggerations. In 
point of fact the defeat cost the English about 600 
men, killed, wounded and prisoners, and the greater 
part of their artillery and stores. But this loss is 
trifling when compared to the humiliation brought 
upon England's pride. Some of her most decisive 
victories in the past had been won by forces numeri- 

' C. H. Teeling's Persona/ Narrative, etc., pages 217-220. 



104 THE FRENCH INVASION 

cally but little larger than the one engaged at Castle- 
bar ; ' and that this well-equipped body of men, 
inured to hardship and military life by several 
months of warfare, should succumb to a most insig- 
nificant foe, was the bitterest pill the nation had 
had to swallow for many a day. For a moment it 
seemed as if even the great Marlborough's achieve- 
ments had been put in the shade ; for, asked the 
pessimist, had he ever beaten the French under 
similar circumstances? 

No absolutely reliable account has ever been 
given of the French losses on this momentous oc- 
casion. Humbert, for reasons of his own, omitted 
any mention of the subject in his report to his gov- 
ernment. That they were very severe admits of 
no doubt whatever. When, two weeks later, the 
French army surrendered at Ballinamuck, it had 
dwindled from 1,130 men — the number that origi- 
nally landed at Killala — to 844. Of the 300 men, 
more or less, who succumbed during the campaign, 
probably two-thirds bit the dust at Castlebar ; in 
other words, twenty-five per cent, of the entire 
French effective.^ Among the dead were the chief 
of staff, Grignon, and Lieutenant Moisson, who 
charged through the town at the head of the 

' Plassey and Quebec. 

'^Fontaine says: "This victory at Castlebar cost us forty dead, 
and we also had a hundred and eighty wounded."' But he does not 
explain whether the losses of the Irish allies are included in this esti- 
mate. The probability is that they are not. 




the officers in their sliabby uniforms, . . . the lithesome 
Irish belles in their bucolic finery," . . . —Page 105. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. IOC 

French cavalry. About a hundred of the prisoners 
were Roman Catholic yeoman from Louth and Kil- 
kenny, who, when appealed to by Humbert's Irish 
allies, expressed a willingness to serve under the 
French flag. They were mustered in to a man. 

Despite the hardships of their march to the field 
of victory, despite their decimation by shot and 
shell, the soldiers of the French Republic, once the 
conflict over, had thoughts but for distraction and 
pleasure. The Gallic nature, with its fantastic mo- 
bility, its violent contrasts, once more asserted it- 
self. On the very evening of the battle, with the 
dead lying unburied on every side, with the un- 
housed v\'ounded torturing the air with their moans, 
Humbert's officers brushed off the dust and powder 
of the fray and assembled all that remained of 
youth and beauty "to trip the light fantastic toe" 
from " eve till dewy morn." It was a strange scene 
— the large, bare hall, lighted by the mellow gleam 
of flickering candles ; the officers in their shabby 
uniforms, some embellished with white bandages 
that would later blush with the blood of the 
wounds they concealed ; the lithesome Irish belles 
in their bucolic finery, whose simple minds were 
half repelled by these rough exteriors, half fright- 
ened at this reckless indifference to surrounding 
dangers and hardships, yet wholly fascinated by the 
martial halo that enveloped their " deliverers." 
The faint, wheezy notes of a spinet, accompanied by 
the screech of a fiddle manipulated by fingers more 



to6 THE FRENCH INVASION 

used to grasping a sword than a bow, supplied the 
music that wooed the too-willing feet to merry 
measures. Through the open casements the night 
air, still heavy with the breath of battle, entered 
to cool the hot cheeks of the damsels, and by its 
familiar odor to spur on the sons of Mars to softer 
conquests.' 

Though Terpsichore elated them and Venus en- 
chanted them, these heroes had still another source 
of gratification. The work of the morning had ele- 
vated them another step on the ladder of promo- 
tion. Sarrazin, already raised one grade at Killala, 
was now a general of division ; Fontaine, who had 
led the cavalry with such decisive results, had be- 
come a general of brigade ; and chiefs of battalion 
Ardouin, Azemare, and Dufour exchanged their 
rank for that of brigade commander. Every man, 
in fact, who had at all distinguished himself during 
the day — and there were few who had not — re- 
ceived his reward at nightfall. 

During all that night bonfires blazed from every 
eminence around the town of Castlebar, and far out 
toward Westport and Newport to the west. By 
this the peasantry manifested their elation at the 
success of the invaders, and their readiness to take 
up arms for the cause. At Westport some depre- 
dations were committed on Protestant property, but 
the owners on fleeing to Castlebar found at least 
ample protection for their persons. By the morning 

' Sir Jonah Barrington is the authority for this incident. 



OP IRELAt^D W gB. lo; 

of the 28th the town was overflowing with peasants 
from all parts of the province of Connaught, some 
armed with rusty match-locks, some with pikes, and 
some with shillalahs. All were in a fever of excite- 
ment, and desired to be enrolled as soldiers of the 
Irish republic. Shouting their wild refrains, the 
throng marched through the streets in military- 
order, their leaders bearing the " tree of liberty," 
surmounted by the Phrygian cap. 

Although from the beginning Humbert had man- 
fully opposed all attempts to despoil the loyalists of 
their property, it was beyond his power to prevent 
the pillage of the residences of Lords Lucan and Al- 
tamont. Taking advantage of the confusion occa- 
sioned by the capture of Castlebar, the insurgents 
ransacked these two magnificent mansions from 
attic to cellar. Lord Altamont's property suffered 
most. His horses and cattle were driven off, his 
wine casks emptied, and his handsome furniture 
smashed during the drunken revels of the pillagers. 
The carved doors were dragged from their hinges, 
and the stained-glass window panes shattered to 
atoms ; in short, the work of demolition was com- 
plete. Of Lord Lucan it is fair to say that his 
treatment was undeserved. He had done much in 
the few preceding years to improve the town of 
Castlebar, which practically belonged to him, one 
of his recent improvements being the construction 
of a large linen hall, with assembly rooms. 

This taste of the sweets of revenge, instead of ap- 



Io8 THE FRENCH INVASION 

peasing the half-intoxicated multitude, only served 
to whet their appetites. After ravaging Lord 
Lucan's house they proceeded to the Protestant 
church, which they left an absolute wreck,' and 
then assembled on a lawn to discuss the advisabil- 
ity of a general massacre of the Protestants. The 
French officers present protested vigorously against 
any such course, and Teeling and O'Keon added the 
weight of their influence to restrain the bloodthirsty 
desires of the mob. A certain Dr. Crump, more 
persistent than the rest, mustered a band of plunder- 
ers and marched with them to Humbert's quarters, 
where he formally demanded permission to indulge 
in one hour's revenge on the Protestant popula- 
tion. He seemed to consider this a poor compen- 
sation for over a hundred years of suffering at their 
hands. His pious request was not granted. Hum- 
bert curtly informed him that any further aggres- 
sion on loyalist civilians would be promptly pun- 
ished. That ended all talk of massacre in Castlebar. 
Several more houses were pillaged, however, one 
being the handsome home of Lord Altamont's 
brother, Mr. Dennis Browne, and another the resi- 
dence of the Rev. Dr. Ellison, who has already 
been spoken of as participating, while a guest of 
Bishop Stock, in the defence of Killala. The rev- 
erend gentleman, after partly recovering from his 
wound, was taken along by the French as a pris- 
oner of war, together with about eighty other loy- 

^ Jones Narrative, p. 296. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. IO9 

alists, including one of the bishop's sons. Un- 
known to Humbert, some members of the native 
contingent broke into the parsonage and carried off 
every article of value. This act greatly incensed 
the French general, who entertained a profound 
respect for his clerical prisoner. It is even said 
that EUison's influence with Humbert prevented 
the levy of two thousand guineas on the town of 
Castlebar. 

Taken all in all, the conduct of the French them- 
selves during the occupation was deserving of all 
praise, and this eulogy applies no less to the indi- 
vidual soldier than to the chiefs. " Many of us," 
wrote a Protestant citizen of the town, " proved 
them both brave and generous ; those who were 
lions in the street seemed like lambs in the parlor." 
But, as if fearful of having said too much in their 
favor, he hastens to add : " However, I have im- 
agined this to be policy, and that if they had once 
conquered the country, they would in a mass cut 
off all who had opposed them." ' 

Another inhabitant of Castlebar has left an in- 
teresting account of the arrival at his house of a 
party of the invaders. He obtained their good will 
by supplying them with meat and wine. "The 
rebels," he writes, " who accompanied them at first, 
plundered us of various articles; but one day when 
they revisited us I alarmed my foreign visitors, 
who expelled and chastised them severely. One of 

^Jones' Narrative, page 301. 



no THE FRENCH INVASION 

them, by name Phillip Sheers, was from Holland ; I 
gave him my watch, but he kindly returned it ; 
another, Bartholomew Baillie, from Paris, was mild, 
learned, and rather silent. He had been a priest, 
but on the overthrow of his order became a sol- 
dier. He denied a future existence. One Ballis- 
ceau, a Spaniard, was as intrepid as Hannibal. 
Since the age of fifteen he had followed the pro- 
fession of a soldier. He had been a prisoner in 
Prussia, in Paris, and in London. He had been 
confined in a dungeon at Constantinople. He had 
crossed the Alps with Bonaparte, and fought under 
him in Italy. His body, head and face were cov- 
ered with wounds. He was a hard drinker, a great 
swearer, and mocked religion ; and yet he was very 
fond of children, and never entered my apartments 
without constantly enquiring for my wife, who was 
on the point of lying-in. The fourth was from 
Rochelle and the fifth from Toulon."' 

It has been seen that, like all French commanders 
of the day — men who had worked their way up 
amid the turmoil and uncertainties of a revolution- 
ary regime — Humbert had much of the politician 
in his composition. He had graduated from a 
school in which the soldier was taught to consider 
the promulgation of republican doctrine as much a 
part of his profession as the waging of war. To 
this circumstance was due the initial mistake of 
a campaign thus far crowned with the most unex- 

' Musgrave's Memoirs, page 596. 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. Ill 

ampled success. Instead of pushing forward after 
the enemy and making the best use of his victory, 
Humbert settled down to the task of forming a 
republican government for the province of Con- 
naught. When his object became known purvey- 
ors of advice, candidates for ofifice, pothouse ora- 
tors and embryo poHticians of every stripe and 
color came forward by the dozens. Every one of 
them wanted a voice in the councils of the new gov- 
ernment ; every one had his own little plan for the 
regeneration of Ireland. The very men who had 
studiously avoided facing the hated " Sassenachs " 
on the field of battle, were loudest in their claims 
for political recognition. It took Humbert a full 
day to rid himself of this rabble. But it cannot be 
said that any of his selections from among the na- 
tives were particularly happy. He was necessarily 
obliged to listen to all such as wielded influence 
with the populace, and the majority of these were 
demagogues or scheming clericals. One man whose 
counsel would seem to have carried some weight 
with the French general was Michael Gannon, a 
drunken priest who had formerly been confessor to 
the Duke of Crillon in France, and, after the latter's 
death, to his widow. At the commencement of the 
great revolution Gannon, to escape persecution, 
returned to his home in Ireland. Like other Irish 
priests of the period, he affected to ignore the 
avowed atheism of the invaders. On one occasion 
he harangued a large body of insurgents from Hum- 



112 THE FRENCH IXVASWN 

bert's window, in response to an urgent appeal to 
accept a military command. He told them in sub- 
stance that he felt himself incapable of leading 
them in the field, but he would pray for the cause 
and fight by their side. He further promised to 
heal their wounds with holy oil, of which he held 
up a specimen in a bottle, amid the tumultuous 
enthusiasm of his audience. Gannon's usual attire 
consisted of a French military cocked hat and a 
suit of fine silk clothes, the property of his former 
master.' 

On August 31st, or four days after the entrance 
of the French into Castlebar, a new civil govern- 
ment was proclaimed for Connaught. The govern- 
ing body was to consist of twelve members, to be 
named by the French commander, with one John 
Moore as president. The town of Castlebar was 
made the seat of government. The first duty of 
the executive, as defined by the proclamation, was 
the organization and equipment of a force of mili- 
tia and the furnishing of supplies to the French 
and their allies. The force to be created was to 
number eight regiments of infantry of 1,200 men 
each, and four regiments of cavalry of 600 men 
each. All persons having received arms or cloth- 
ing and failing to join the army within twenty-four 
hours were declared " rebels and traitors." The 
closing paragraph of the proclamation required, " in 
the name of the Irish Republic," every male from 

' Musgrave's Memoirs^ page 6oi. 



OF IRELAND IN "gS. II3 

the age of sixteen to forty, inclusive, to " instantly 
repair to the French camp, in order to march in 
mass against the common enemy — the tyrants of 
Ireland — the English, whose destruction alone can 
insure the independence and welfare of Ancient 
Hibernia ! " 

The new republican government thus conjured 
into existence was but a mirage. The president — a 
weak-minded person, as the result showed — -amused 
himself on the first day of his appointment, issuing 
assignats in the name of the French Government ; 
and when the French departed, three days later, the 
whole legislative system collapsed. In the mean- 
while the insurgents, after numerous quarrels among 
themselves over prospective spoils, also succeeded in 
electing a mayor for Castlebar, two high justices and 
six municipal ofificers. Half the zeal expended by 
them in this useless scramble might on the field of 
honor have turned the scale in their favor. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Humbert resumes Operations in tiie Field — The British Plan of 
Campaign— Battle of Colooney— Battle and Surrender at Balli- 
namuck— Case of Bartholomew Teeling. 




FTER organizing a govern- 
ment for Connaught, Hum- 
bert once more turned his 
attention to the military sit- 
uation, and began laying his 
plans "for a march into the 
heart of the country. In 
a letter addressed to the 
French Minister of Marine, three or 
four days after the battle of Castle- 
bar, he had outlined his programme in the fol- 
lowing language : " As soon as the corps of United 
Irishmen shall be clothed, I shall march against 
the enemy in the direction of Roscommon (to the 
southeast), where the partisans of the insurrection 
are most zealous. As soon as the English army 
shall have evacuated the province of Connaught, I 
shall pass the Shannon and shall endeavor to make 



FRENCH INVASION OF IRELAND. Il5 

a junction with the insurgents in the north. When 
this shall have been effected I shall be in a sufficient 
force to march to Dublin, and to fight a decisive 
action." 

He explained in this letter that the slow progress 
of the French was due to the hesitancy of the Irish 
allies; and in order that *' this handful of French" 
may not be obliged to yield to numbers, he asked 
that recnforcements be sent, consisting of one bat- 
talion of the 3d Half Brigade of Light Infantry, 
one of the loth Half Brigade of the line, 150 of the 
3d Regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval, and 100 men 
of the Light Artillery; also 15,000 fire-locks and 
1,000,000 cartridges. "I will venture to assert," 
were his concluding words, "that in the course of 
a month after the arrival of this recnforcement, 
which I estimate at 2,000 men, Ireland will be 
free ! " 

Humbert was apparently ill-informed regarding 
the situation at the time he penned his appeal to 
the French Directory. The county of Roscommon 
was but a very small portion of the disaffected dis- 
trict, which in reality comprised counties Leitrim, 
Cavan, and Monaghan to the northeast, and Long- 
ford and Westmeath ' to the east (see map). In 

' Though revolutionary, the spirit of the insurgents was far 
from being republican, if the following proclamation, which was 
found posted on a church at Westmeath, may be taken as a sample 
of their ideas : " Take notice, heretic usurpers, that the brave slaves 
of this island will no longer lie in bondage ; the die is cast, our de- 



Il6 THE FRENCH INVASION 

fact the revolutionary spirit extended even to Dub- 
lin. From the day of the French landing, the 
village blacksmiths everywhere had been busily 
employed manufacturing pikes, the *' croppy's " 
favorite weapon, and the preparations were now 
complete for a general uprising and cooperation 
with the French forces in their march to the capital. 
It being generally assumed that the invaders would 
select the shortest route, which was through Long- 
ford, it was determined to aid them by the seizure 
of the town of Granard, a strong post situated on 
an eminence near the county line. The leaders in 
this movement were two men of property, Alexan- 
der and Hans Denniston, who lived in the neigh- 
borhood of Granard, and although members of the 
Mastrim yeomanry cavalry, had secretly espoused 
the patriot cause. The advent of the French in 
Mayo had been anticipated for months by the revo- 
lutionists in Belfast and many northern towns, and 
when the news came of the advance on Ballina, 
Hans Denniston repaired north to deliberate with 
the rebel leaders. It was intended that the attack 

liverers are come, and the royal brute who held the iron rod of 
despotic tyranny is expiring ; nor shall one govern. Our holy old 
religion shall be established in this house, and the earth shall no 
longer be burthened with bloody heretics who, under the pretence of 
rebellion (which they themselves have raised), mean to massacre us ! " 

"The Fleur-de-lis and harp we will display 
While tyrant heretics shall mould to clay. 

Revenge ! Revenge ! Revenge ! " 
Musgrave's Memoirs, Appendix, page 165. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 1 17 

on Granard, then weakly garrisoned, should take 
place immediately on his return. 

In the meanwhile reenforcements to the Long- 
ford army came pouring in from all sides, West- 
meath sending 3,000 men and Roscommon an 
almost equally large number. In Monaghan and 
Cavan, on the other hand, large bodies of men were 
held in readiness to march at a moment's notice and 
form a junction with their brethren as soon as Gra- 
nard should be taken. The Monaghan army alone 
numbered 23,000 men, according to a reliable au- 
thority, and was armed with matchlocks, sabres and 
pikes, but lacked cannon and ammunition ; and in 
order to make up for this deficiency the leaders 
proposed to attack the town of Cavan, containing a 
well-stocked depot of war material.' 

As far as Humbert was therefore concerned, every- 
thing pointed toward a rapid advance in the direc- 
tion of Granard. But here already the results of 
his dilatory policy commenced making themselves 
felt. On the morning of September 3d he was 
informed of the presence of Lord Cornwallis at Ath- 
lone, with a large body of regulars, and of the con- 
centration of other hostile armies further south and 
east. He considered it inadvisable to encounter 
such a force with his insignificant body of French 
and his more numerous but entirely undisciplined 
Irish contingent ; so, having learned from a spy 
named Jourdan that counties Sligo and Leitrim 

' Jones' Narrative, pages 306, 307. 



Il8 THE FRENCH INVASION 

were comparatively free from the enemy, he decided 
to adopt that circuitous route to the capital. He 
sent orders to the troops he had left at Killala, and 
a small detachment stationed at Ballina, to meet 
him en route, and on the night of September 3d the 
first division of his army, with the baggage and can- 
non, set out for Sligo. The next morning the second 
division followed, about 400 Frenchmen and from 
1,500 to 2,000 Irish auxiliaries. The majority of the 
"patriots" had preferred remaining behind, presum- 
ably to look after the "government." 

On leaving Castlebar, the French general gave his 
eighty prisoners their liberty, as they would only 
have proved an incumbrance during the march. 
Doctor Ellison was one of them. When the French 
were fairly out of sight he sent a letter to Lord 
Cornwallis, who was supposed to have reached Hol- 
lymount, fourteen miles to the south. Embold- 
ened by the continued absence of the invaders — 
it had been suspected at first that their departure 
was but a feint— the Doctor by and by started out 
himself on the Hollymount road, where he met 
Colonel Crawford with a cavalry detachment, con- 
sisting of some Hompeschers — Hessian mercena- 
ries — and Roxburgh Fencibles. Informed of the 
state of affairs in Castlebar, the colonel proceeded 
thither at full speed, accompanied by Ellison. They 
reached their destination at a late hour in a pour- 
ing rain, and their appearance created a verita- 
ble panic among the insurgents. Crawford imme- 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. I IQ 

diately sent for John Moore, the previously men- 
tioned " President of Connaught," and ordered him 
to disclose any information he might possess touch- 
ing the route and plans of the French army. As 
the unfortunate man declared himself ignorant on 
the subject, the colonel ordered a dragoon to draw 
his sword and decapitate him. This bloodthirsty 
command so frightened the victim that he fell 
on his knees, invoked the saints, and begged for 
mercy, producing at the same time his commis- 
sion as " President," an act of self-incrimination 
that can with difficulty be accounted for, unless, 
as has been stated by one writer, the President of 
the Province of Connaught was really under the 
influence of liquor at the time. 

Let us now view the position of his Majesty's 
forces. On September 3d Lord Cornwallis arrived 
at Tuam from Athlone, with the army he had 
formed in the east, a portion of which consisted of 
the shattered remnants of General Lake's beaten 
forces. As the British commander lacked informa- 
tion regarding the intentions of the French, he 
resolved to continue his march to Castlebar with 
one portion of the army, while General Lake 
with 14,000 men ' moved direct northward and 
joined General Taylor, who after the battle of 
Castlebar had retreated from Foxford and taken 
his stand at the village of Ballyhadireen. (See 
map.) Lake's division was made up as follows : 

'Jones" Narrative, page 322. 



120 THE FRENCH INVASION 

the cavalry consisted of the 23d Light Dragoons, 
the 1st Fencible Light Dragoons, the Roxburgh 
Fencible Dragoons, and some mounted carabineers, 
under command of Colonel Sir Thomas Chapman, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Ma*xwell, the Earl of Roden and 
Captain Kerr ; the infantry was made up of the 
Third Battalion of Light Infantry, the Armagh and 
part of the Kerry Militia, the Reay and Northamp- 
ton Regiments, and the Prince of Wales' Fencible 
Regiment of Fusileers, under the orders of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Innes of the 64th Regiment, Lord 
Viscount Gosford, the Earl of Glandore, Major 
Ross, Lieutenant-Colonel Bulkeley and Lieutenant- 
Colonel McCartney/ 

This army marched from Tuam on the afternoon 
of September the 4th, and late the same evening 
reached Ballinlough, about twenty miles to the 
north. Another day's march brought it to Bally- 
hadireen, where Taylor's brigade was encamped. 
At one o'clock of the 5th, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Meade was sent out by Lake, with a party of 
dragoons, to reconnoitre the surroundings and dis- 
cover whether the rumors of Humbert's departure 
from Castlebar were true. At a hamlet between 
Ballyhadireen and Ballahy, an advanced patrol of 
the reconnoiterers captured a rebel, from whom 
they learned that the French were on the march 
northward. This information being communicated 
to General Lake, Meade was ordered to carry it to 

' General Lake's Letter to Colonel Taylor, Sept. 8, 1798. 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 121 

Lord Cornwallis at Hollymount. When within 
fifteen miles of Castlebar, Meade's dragoons fell 
in with a large detachment of insurgents, posted 
on a row of hillocks extending down to a bog. 
The foremost horsemen, without waiting for their 
superiors' orders, dashed at a party of pikemen 
stationed at a bridge, and very nearly brought on 
a general conflict, which would doubtless have 
proved disastrous to the colonel's mission. Meade, 
with great presence of mind, spurred to the front 
and ordered a halt, and perceiving that the rebels 
were acting in a half-hearted manner, offered them 
favorable conditions of surrender, which many ac- 
cepted. The poor wretches had deserted from the 
French, and were suffering the pangs of hunger and 
the anguish of apprehension. About sixty muskets 
were surrendered to the English, after which the 
prisoners were allowed to depart in peace. Near 
Swineford, Meade turned to the south, and between 
Clare and Ballyhanis met the lord-lieutenant, who, 
having been informed while at Hollymount of the 
evacuation of Castlebar, was now on his way to the 
northeast to cooperate with General Lake's division 
in an advance on the French rear. 

Rain fell in torrents when Humbert's army began 
its march, and the difficulties of the advance were 
increased tenfold by the muddy condition of the 
highways. Reports, unfortunately too true, of the 
hourly growth of the enemy's forces, served to act 
as a damper on the spirits of the Irish allies, and 



122 THE FRENCH INVASION' 

those who had clamored loudest for the extinction 
of their Protestant fellow-citizens now dropped out 
by degrees from the marching ranks, and took 
themselves off to a place of safety. The deser- 
tions, in fact, became so frequent and general, that 
a guard of French soldiers was finally placed on the 
flanks and the rear of the Irish column, to check 
them as far as possible. 

The first halt of the army was at a place called 
Barleyfield, the seat of a wealthy land-owner 
named McManus. Here the French requisitioned 
some provisions to be sent on to Swineford, which 
place the army entered early on the evening of 
the 4th. Humbert remained unremittingly in the 
midst of his troops, not even leaving them to par- 
take of his meals under cover of a farm-house. 
From Swineford the army proceeded to Ballahy, 
and after another short halt continued on to Tub- 
bercurry. This village was the scene of the first 
blood shed during the second half of Humbert's 
campaign. The Corrailiney and Coolavin yeoman 
cavalry, under Captain O'Hara, advanced to meet 
the French at the outskirts of the place, and were 
driven into flight after a short engagement. The 
British lost one man killed, several wounded, and 
two prisoners, Captain Russell and Lieutenant 
Knott. At Tubbercurry the French were joined 
by a considerable body of rebels who had marched 
across the mountains from Ballina. They brought 
with them some Protestant prisoners. These 










COLONEL CHARLES VEKEKER. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 123 

Humbert immediately sent back for the same rea- 
sons that had induced him to Hberate their breth- 
ren at Castlebar. 

The march was uninterrupted after this until the 
army arrived, on the 5th, at Colooney, a romantic 
village on the banks of the river of the same name, 
ten miles to the south of the flourishing sea-port of 
Sligo. The garrison of the latter place numbered 
six hundred men of all arms, under Colonel Charles 
Vereker, who, learning from O'Hara of the ap- 
proach of the French, marched out against them 
with two hundred and fifty of the Limerick City 
Militia, twenty of the Essex Fencible Infantry, 
thirty yeomen, a troop of the 24th Regiment of 
Light Dragoons and two curricle guns. The inhab- 
itants of Sligo, in the mean time, became a prey 
to the greatest consternation, expecting to witness 
scenes of rapine and plunder in their very midst ; 
and their fears were not unjustified either, for the 
town contained property valued at several hundred 
thousand pounds, and its harbor was filled with 
vessels of every size and description. In other 
words, it offered many temptations to a hostile 
force. 

According to the colonel's own account, when he 
arrived within sight of Colooney, at about half-past 
two on the 5th, he found the French posted on the 
northern side of the town ready to receive him. 
His left was sufficiently protected by the river, and 
in order to secure his right he sent Major Ormsby 



124 THE FRENCH INVASION 

with one hundred men to occupy a neighboring 
eminence. The action that followed was obsti- 
nately contested. Vereker, with a boldness out of 
all proportion to his numerical strength, moved 
forward on the foe along the whole line, and for a 
while succeeded in maintaining himself. But the 
French reserves presently came up, and Humbert 
was enabled to outflank the British' right and drive 
Ormsby and his men into the plain beyond. Fresh 
bodies of troops were then thrown upon Vereker's 
right flanks with a view to surrounding him and forc- 
ing him to surrender, with the alternative of being 
driven into the water. The gallant Englishman, 
who had already received a painful wound, discov- 
ered the purpose of his adversary, and having ex- 
pended nearly all his ammunition ordered a retreat. 
The British left the field in good order, covered by 
their cavalry under Captain Whistler, who experi- 
enced the satisfaction of repulsing a charge of the 
French Chasseurs. Notwithstanding the exertions 
of Captain Slessor, of the Royal Irish Artillery, 
the two guns had to be abandoned in consequence 
of the killing of one of the horses. However, 
as the ammunition wagon and entire gun harness 
were saved, the cannon proved of little use to 
the French. The casualties on the British side 
amounted to one ofificer killed and five officers and 
twenty-two rank and file wounded. The French 
loss was twenty killed and thirty wounded, and 
the rebels, who fought much better on this oc- 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 1 25 

casion than at Castlebar, also suffered to some ex- 
tent/ 

Humbert was not backward in paying a just tri- 
bute to the pluck and energy of Colonel Vereker.^ 
He openly expressed his admiration of the mas- 
terly manner in which the British troops had been 
handled during the engagement, and declared the 
colonel to be the only man he had encountered in 
Ireland capable of leading fifty men into battle. 
The truth of the matter is that the French and 
British commanders at Colooney each miscalculated 
the strength of his opponent. Vereker imagined 
himself to be dealing merely with the advanced 
guard of the French army, while Humbert was led 
to believe that he had repulsed the van of a more 
formidable force. Expecting another attack the 
French general remained on the field for some 
hours, forming the rear columns for action as they 
came up, and then when no enemy appeared he 
turned to the east, following the high-road to 
Manor Hamilton, in the county of Leitrim. 

Thus Sligo was saved from a hostile occupation, 
which was all the more unexpected as half an hour 
after the commencement of the fight at Colooney a 
number of fugitives entered the town, announcing 
that the English had been beaten and that the 

' These figures are from Vereker's report. No French account 
of this engagement is in existence. 

^ Vereker afterward became Viscount Gort, and was permitted to 
adopt as his motto the word " Colooney." 



126 THE FRENCH INVASION 

French were advancing. The Protestant population 
was seized with a panic, and a stampede occurred 
to the harbor, where thousands of men, women and 
children boarded the ships in the hopes of at least 
saving their lives. A few hundreds of the younger 
men, however, secured matchlocks and pikes, with 
the determination of defending their homes at any 
cost, and their efforts were ably seconded by the 
Protestant clergy. The military who had been left 
behind by Colonel Vereker, under Colonel Sparrow, 
occupied the avenues leading to the town, and had 
the French appeared some desperate street fighting 
would have resulted. As it was, after an anxious 
night orderlies arrived from Colonel Vereker with 
the welcome intelligence that the French had aban- 
doned their designs on Sligo, and the Protestants 
once more breathed freely. 

General Lake, in compliance with the lord-lieu- 
tenant's instructions, was meanwhile pressing close 
on the rear of Humbert's army. From Ballyhadi- 
reen he marched on the afternoon of the 5th with 
his combined forces to Ballahy, through which place 
he learned the French had passed the preceding 
evening at about seven o'clock. He marched 
onward without further delay, and entered Tub- 
bercurry at seven. He found Colonel Crawford 
awaiting him here with the Hompeschers and the 
Roxburgh Fencible Cavalry, and henceforth this de- 
tachment acted as the advance guard of the army. 
The services they rendered in harassing the French 



OF IRELAND IN 'qS. 1 27 

were invaluable, but their course was marked by the 
most revolting acts of barbarity. They took no 
prisoners under any circumstances, but cut down in 
cold blood all stragglers from Humbert's Irish con- 
tingent, and even entire bodies of the rebels who 
offered to surrender. Thus for miles and miles the 
road in the wake of the French army was strewn 
with the dead and dying, farm-houses and private 
dwellings in the vicinity were reduced to ashes, and 
devastation was spread all over a lately prosperous 
country. When the British force reached Colooney, 
whence Humbert had departed a short while before, 
a number of wounded French were discovered in a 
barn under the care of a surgeon. These experi- 
enced good treatment; but a Longford deserter who 
fell into the hands of the Hompeschers received 
short shrift, and his body, riddled with bullets, was 
marched over by the entire army. 

To accelerate his movements the French general, 
after leaving Colooney, threw two pieces of cannon 
into a ditch and five more into the river at Droma- 
haire, a hamlet on the border of Leitrim. Craw- 
ford was close upon his rear, and shots were con- 
stantly being exchanged between pursuers and 
pursued. All this while the ranks of the Irish 
auxiliaries continued to thin out by desertion, 
superinduced by fear of summary vengeance ; so 
that forty-eight hours after the evacuation of Cas- 
tlebar scarcely half of their number remained with 
the army. The discipline of the French soldiers 



128 THE FRENCH INVASION * 

under all these trying circumstances maintained it- 
self in a most effectual manner. Neither lack of 
food and rest, nor the fading hope of ultimate 
success could dampen their ardor. Their march 
partook of the character of a running fight, de- 
void of one hour's respite from toil and danger, 
and at times the enemy's cavalry would approach 
near enough to occasion a hand-to-hand conflict, in 
which, while invariably victorious, the French al- 
ways sacrificed one or more of their meagre force. 
Within a few miles of Manor Hamilton Humbert 
learned of the concentration of rebel troops around 
the town of Granard, and conceiving at last that his 
only remaining hope lay in attaining this point, 
whereby he would gain a strategical position of 
great value between the royal army and Dublin, he 
wheeled to the right and directed his steps toward 
the south. 

The same scenes that had marked his progress 
from Colooney attended the latter portion of the 
march. Crawford still hung obstinately on his rear, 
and harassed him unceasingly with feints and par- 
tial attacks. Between Drumshambo and Ballyna- 
more, however, the English officer overstepped the 
bounds of caution and made a general attack, which 
resulted disastrously for him, many of his men 
being killed or wounded and the remainder put 
to flight. Humbert was only prevented from sur- 
rounding the British on this occasion by the mis- 
taken idea that he was engaged with Lake's entire 




T3 I 



OF IRELAND IN 'q8. 1 29 

army. On the afternoon of the 7th the French 
passed the River Shannon at Ballintra, but so close 
was the pursuit that they were unable to destroy 
the bridge, as had been their intention. The pow- 
der used by Fontaine, who had charge of the opera- 
tion, proved insufificient for the purpose, and only a 
slight break was made, which the British afterward 
repaired with the ruins of an adjacent house. At 
nightfall the French arrived at Cloone, and such 
was the exhausted condition of his men that Hum- 
bert found himself forced to give them a couple of 
hours' rest. 

It was at Cloone that he received details of the 
progress of affairs in Longford and Westmeath. A 
delegation of insurgents from the neighborhood of 
Granard informed him that this post had been inef- 
fectually assailed by 6,000 men on the morning of 
the 5th, and that the following day the patriot 
armies had experienced a similar check at Wil- 
son's Hospital in Westmeath. Still, they declared 
that there was no reason to abandon hope, for 
though unsuccessful in their first efforts, the insur- 
gents were in nowise discomfited, and, fully 10,000 
strong, were feverishly awaiting the appearance of 
their allies, the French. The spokesman of this 
delegation is described by Fontaine as being armed 
from head to foot with a large variety of weapons, 
and bearing in a general way a not remote resem- 
blance to the bold knights-errant of the thirteenth 
century. He appears to have been a very long- 
9 



130 THE FRENCH INVASION 

winded and loquacious individual, for the same 
writer attributes the fatal delay at Cloone solely 
to these unnecessary pourparlers. From English 
sources one learns of another cause for this loss of 
time. It was the first opportunity the French had 
had of closing their eyes in sleep during four long- 
days and nights. Every minute of that period had 
been one of anxiety and toil. Humbert appears to 
have given orders that he and his oflficers should 
be awakened at the end of two hours, but the guard 
let them sleep four, and thus the British army 
came nearer than he expected. But for the loss of 
that two hours the French might have succeeded in 
reaching Granard, and then Cornwallis' plans would 
have been upset.' 

General Lake approached Cloone a little before 
sunrise on September 8th. He had intended to 
surprise the French during the night, but in the 
darkness some of the divisions of his army missed 
their route. The English entered Cloone on one 
side as the French withdrew on the other. 

Lord Cornwallis was on the high-road between 
Hollymount and Carrick-on-Shannon, on the morn- 
ing of the 7th, when an ofificer from Lake's division 
informed him of Humbert's change of front. The 
lord-lieutenant immediately guessed his adversa- 
ry's intention, and while hastening his own march 
to Carrick, directed Major-General Moore — who 
had in the mean time been sent to Tubbercurry — 

^Jones' Narrative, page 324. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. I3I 

to prepare himself for a possible movement against 
the town of Boyle.' Arriving at Carrick in the 
evening, Lord CornwalHs learned that the French 
had already passed the Shannon at Ballintra, and 
were bivouacked at Cloone. Accordingly at ten 
o'clock the same night he marched with his entire 
force to Mohill, ten miles further west, where at 
daybreak on the 8th he was confronted with the 
fact that Humbert was moving toward Granard, 
He thereupon sent instructions to Lake to attack 
the enemy's rear without delay, and himself pro- 
ceeded with all possible expedition to St. Johns- 
town, through which place, on account of the 
breaking down of a bridge, the French would 
necessarily have to pass in order to reach their 
destination. (See map.) 

In compliance with his instructions, General 
Lake, after reaching Cloone, redoubled his efforts 
to force Humbert to an engagement. He mounted 
five flank companies of militia, viz.: the Dublin, 
Armagh, Monaghan, Tipperary and Kerry, behind 
the Hompeschers and Roxburghs, and started them 
off against the worn-out foe. When the pursuers 
drew near, the infantry dismounted and kept up an 
incessant fire, and, aided by the cavalry, obliged the 
retreating troops to slacken their pace. Seeing that 
a battle was unavoidable, the French general finally 
brought his men to a standstill and made the neces- 
sary preparations. Defeat stared him in the face, 

'See Cornwallis' letter to the Duke of Portland, September 9, 179S. 



132 THE FRENCH INVASION 

but, as on former occasions, he was resolved to up- 
hold the honor of his country's flag at any sacrifice. 
With his usual coolness in moments of danger, he 
addressed a few words of encouragement to the 
brave men who had stood by him through the long 
period of trials and j^erils, and exhorted them to do 
their duty to the very last. He posted the army on 
a hill near the hamlet of Ballinamuck, four miles 
from Cloone, and the same distance from Mohill. 
His left was partly protected by a bog, and his 
right by another bog and a lake. The position was 
altogether as advantageous a one as could have been 
selected under the circumstances, but the enormous 
numerical superiority of the English reduced Hum- 
bert's chances, even of escape, to absolutely nothing. 

At the very commencement of the action a most 
regrettable incident occurred, for which no satisfac- 
tory explanation has ever been given. General Sar- 
razin, who during the entire campaign had distin- 
guished himself beyond all praise, was suddenly seen 
to gallop down the first line of the rear division, 
flourishing his cap on the point, of his sword, as 
a signal of surrender; whereupon the division 
grounded their arms.* 

At this moment the Earl of Roden and Colonel 
Crawford advanced with their cavalry, and perceiv- 
ing the movement in the French lines ordered the 
trumpet to sound. It was answered on the French 
side, and two British officers riding forward alone, 

' C. H. Teeling's Personal N^arrative, etc., page 227. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 1 33 

a parley ensued. The Englishmen demanded the 
immediate surrender of the French army. Sarra- 
zin rephed that the matter must be referred to the 
commander-in-chief, then stationed some distance 
behind on the Ballinamuck road with the main 
body. 

While this conversation was in progress, General 
Taylor mistakenly informed General Lake that the 
French army had capitulated, and the British com- 
mander then despatched the " lieutenant-general of 
ordnance," Captain Packenham, and Major-General 
Craddock to receive Humbert's sword. The of^cers 
rode over to Humbert's line, but, to their conster- 
nation, were received with a volley which wounded 
Craddock in the shoulder.' Then it became clear 
that some misunderstanding had occurred. It ap- 
pears that Humbert, upon learning of his subor- 
dinate's parley with the enemy, burst into a fit of 
indignation, and, repudiating any idea of surrender, 
ordered the advance at double-quick. Lord Roden 
had by this time induced Sarrazin to capitulate, 
and Crawford, confident of meeting no further 
opposition, had advanced on the French lines with 
a body of dragoons. In a moment all was changed. 
Humbert's Grenadiers rushed at the dragoons and 

' An eye-witness of these events, whose letter appears in Saunders' 
Newsletter, Dublin, in September, 1798, declares that this volley 
was fired by a body of Irish rebels whom Craddock, in his kindness 
of heart, was urging to throw down their arms and flee, well knowing 
that no mercy would be shown to them by the vindictive Lake. 



134 THE FRENCH INVASION 

made them prisoners, together with their two lead- 
ers, while the rest of the horse, savagely attacked on 
two sides, scampered away with precipitation. 

Now the action became general. Lake, attempt- 
ing to imitate Humbert's tactics at Colooney, threw 
a column of troops on the right of the French, with 
a view to outflanking them. Perceiving this Hum- 
bert withdrew his main body from the hill to 
another eminence further back. The British artil- 
lery was then moved to the front; but when Lake 
saw a large body of stalwart pikemen form into a 
solid column for the purpose of charging the guns, 
he ordered the latter withdrawn and continued the 
battle with infantry and cavalry. On the brow of a 
hill, a quarter of a mile from the spot where Sar- 
razin had surrendered, a number of French tirail- 
leurs were posted with some artillery, and these did 
much execution in the ranks of the British right. 
The English general himself at one moment came 
within range of their fire, and narrowly escaped with 
his life. After a good deal of firing on both sides, 
he at last ordered his light infantry and cavalry to 
ascend the hill from two points, which they did 
with enthusiasm ; but not until every tirailleur had 
either been killed, wounded or made prisoner, was 
the French cannon finally silenced and the battle 
won. 

During the whole conflict Humbert maintained 
his reputation as a skilful leader and a brave man. 
Unwilling to survive defeat, he threw himself in the 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 1 35 

midst of the enemy, sword in hand, and but for the 
intervention of his aide-de-camp, Teeling, he would 
probably have been killed by the dragoons, who 
bore him down from his saddle. Lord Roden and 
Colonel Crawford remained prisoners in the midst 
of a body of chasseurs until the Roxburgh Fenci- 
bles came up in search of their colonel. The French 
officers, realizing then that further resistance would 
only lead to the useless sacrifice of many valuable 
lives, surrendered their swords and ordered the 
firing to cease. 

As far as the French were concerned the battle 
was ended. But now the most horrible act in the 
drama was to be played. The unfortunate rebels, 
who still numbered several hundreds, expecting no 
quarter, fought on with the frenzy of despair. 
Driven from the guns which they had helped to 
serve, not without loss to the foe, they fled into a 
bog and were here surrounded by horse, foot and 
artillery. Lake's hour of revenge had sounded, and 
he made full use of his opportunity. Raked with a 
galling cross-fire from all points, sabred by the 
horsemen and bayoneted by the infantry, there soon 
remained but a skeleton of the solid column that 
had stood side by side with Humbert's troops at the 
beginning of the battle ; and those who finally were 
allowed to lay down their arms only exchanged the 
bullet or sword for the rope. Here is what one 
eye-witness has written : 

" We pursued the rebels through the bog — the 



136 THE FRENCH INVASION 

country was covered for miles around with their 
slain. We remained for a few days burying the 
dead — Juing General Blake anel nine of the Longford 
imlitia ; we brought one hundred and thirteen pris- 
oners to Carrick-on-Shannon, nineteen bf zvhoni we 
executed in one day, and left the remainder for 
others to follozv our example! " 

" They are hanging rebels here by twenties to- 
gether," wrote an officer of the Reay Fencibles to 
his friends. " It is a melancholy sight, but neces- 
sary." 

And here are another eye-witness' words : " There 
lay dead about five hundred ; I went next day with 
many others to see them ; how awful ! to see that 
heathy mountain covered with dead bodies, resem- 
bling at a distance flocks of sheep — for numbers 
were naked and swelled with the weather. We 
found fifteen of the Longford militia among the 
slain." 

General Richard Blake, referred to above, was a 
gentleman of Galway who had joined the patriot 
cause shortly before the battle of Castlebar, and had 
commanded a division of Irish auxiliaries during 
the later operations. His request to die by the 
bullet instead of the rope was denied. He bore his 
fate with the dignity of a hero, as did likewise 
one O'Dowd, another rebel of prominence. As the 
executions were proceeding on the battle-field, one 
of the doomed Longford militiamen demanded the 
reason for his condemnation. He was told that 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 137 

death was the punishment for desertion provided by 
the mihtary code. " Desertion indeed ! " was the 
reply. " It seems to me the men who ran away 
from Castlebar were the real deserters, and not I. 
They took to their heels without attempting to 
fight, and left me behind to be murdered by the 
French." The force of the argument impressed it- 
self on Lord Jocelin, who was standing by, and he 
interceded with success for the man's life.' 

Humbert was conducted before the English gen- 
eral immediately after his surrender. " Where is 
your army ? " asked Lake, surprised at the small 
number of his opponents. " There it is yonder," 
coolly replied Humbert, pointing to a group of 
fagged-out men and horses in the background ; 
" there you have my entire force." " And what did 
you propose doing ? " asked Lake. Humbert seized 
the opportunity to indulge in one of his favorite 
fanfaronades : " I proposed marching on to Dub- 
lin," he answered, drawing himself up in a theatrical 
attitude, " there to rend asunder the chains of those 
who are suffering beneath your tyrannical yoke ! " 
Lake shrugged his shoulders, with the remark: 
" Such a project could only find birth in a French- 
man's brain." He thereupon ordered the French 
general to be taken to the lord-lieutenant, at St. 
Johnstown.- 

The return of prisoners showed the French army 

' Sir Jonah Barrington's jRise and Fall of the Irish Nation. 
"^ Fontaine's Notice Historiijue. 



138 THE FRENCH INVASION 

to have been reduced to 96 officers and 746 men, 
with 100 horses and three field guns ; and of these 
survivors many were sick and wounded, or disabled 
by incessant marching. The brave men had marched 
almost a hundred English miles since the day of 
their departure from Castlebar. Their actual loss 
at Ballinamuck has never been definitely ascer- 
tained ; that of the British has officially been placed 
at three men killed, twelve wounded, and three 
missing, although there are reasons for believing 
that the figures were considerably higher. 

The treatment of the French prisoners reflects 
credit on the British military authorities. They 
received many attentions and courtesies on all sides, 
and at Longford the officers were entertained at a 
sumptuous banquet. Expressing his surprise at the 
rejoicings and illuminations in the streets over the 
"victory," Adjutant-General Fontaine obtained the 
explanation, sotto voce, from an English officer, that 
his countrymen were really "illuminating their own 
stupidity and the triumphs of the French." The 
prisoners were sent to Dublin by the Grand Canal, 
and, as steam was unknown in those days, their 
journey lasted nearly a week. They travelled on 
six large barges, the first one carrying the escort of 
Fermanagh militia with a full military band, the 
second one the captive officers, and the remainder 
the rank and file. Nothing, according to contem- 
porary accounts, could exceed the nonchalance and 
merriment with which the French bore their situa- 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 139 

tion. They seemed to consider that, having fully- 
performed their duty as patriots and soldiers, they 
had every reason to congratulate themselves on the 
conclusion of a most trying and ungrateful task ; so 
they were constantly collecting in parties, convers- 
ing with the utmost gayety, playing cards, dancing, 
and above all, singing the Marseillaise. 

In Dublin — although, for prudential reasons, the 
prisoners were not allowed to show themselves in 
public — they were frequently complimented for their 
conduct during the campaign, and at their arrival 
in Liverpool an immense crowd gathered to greet 
them with many manifestations of friendliness. At 
Litchfield, where the officers were temporarily quar- 
tered, General Humbert was actually visited by a 
deputation of clergymen, headed by no less a per- 
son than the Lord Bishop, a brother of Cornwallis, 
who expressed their gratitude for the protection 
extended by him to the Protestants of Connaught. 

Humbert's first request to the British authorities 
was that his Irish officers receive considerate treat- 
ment. He could offer no reason for leniency on be- 
half of those who had taken up arms against the 
Crown after the arrival of the invaders, but he in- 
sisted all the more on immunity for such as had 
come over from France and held commissions in 
the French army. Particularly solicitous was he 
about Teeling, his aide-de-camp. On this subject 
Teeling's brother has written feelingly, as follows: 
" After the surrender of the French army a cartel 



140 THE FRENCH INVASION 

was concluded for the exchange of prisoners, under 
which General Humbert, with the residue of his 
forces, was to proceed to France. The most bitter 
regret was evinced by the French general in finding 
that Teeling was not to derive the benefit of this 
arrangement. The latter, as already observed, had 
surrendered prisoner of war when his general was 
captured. His person was easily identified ; recent 
circumstances had made him known to General 
Lake ; but (and I mention this circumstance with 
a feeling of gratitude and admiration), though be- 
tween him and several of the British officers on the 
field an early and familiar intercourse had subsisted, 
they had the generosity, under his present circum- 
stances, not to make any recognition. On taking 
muster of the French officers he was set apart and 
claimed as a British subject by General Lake. 
Humbert remonstrated; he demanded his officer in 
the name of the French Government ; he protested 
against what he conceived a breach of national 
honor and of the law of arms. ' I will not part with 
him,' he exclaimed with violent emotion. * An hour 
ago, and ere this had occurred he should have per- 
ished in the midst of us with a rampart of French 
bayonets around him ! I will accompany him to 
prison or to death.' And this generous soldier did 
accompany his aide-de-camp to Longford prison, 
where he remained till the following day, when the 
French prisoners were conveyed to the capital, and 
thence embarked with the least possible delay on 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. I4I 

board transports for England. Teeling was re- 
moved to Dublin to be tried by court-martial. 
Matthew Tone, who had been arrested the day 
after the battle, was also recognized as an Irishman 
and retained for trial." 

Teeling was brought to trial for high treason less 
than two weeks after his capture, and, notwith- 
standing the many proofs adduced of his kindness 
to loyal prisoners and his strict observance of the 
rules of civilized warfare, he was condemned to 
death as a traitor to his country. Humbert, on 
board the Van Tromp, wrote a touching letter of 
appeal to the president of the court-martial two 
days before the commencement of the trial, from 
which the following is extracted: 

" Teeling, by his bravery and generous conduct, 
has prevented in all the towns through which we 
have passed the insurgents from proceeding to the 
most criminal excesses. Write to Killala, to Bal- 
lina, to Castlebar ; there does not live an inhabitant 
who will not render him the greatest justice. This 
officer is commissioned by my government; and all 
these considerations, joined to his gallant conduct 
toward your people, ought to impress much in his 
favor. I flatter myself that the proceedings in your 
court will be favorable to him, and that you will 
treat him with the greatest indulgence." 

Lord Cornwallis turned a deaf ear to all appeals 
for clemency on the unfortunate man's behalf, and 
on the morning of September 24th he was led out 



142 THE FRENCH INVASION 

from the Prevost to the gallows erected on Arbor 
Hill. He was attired in the full regimentals of a 
French staff-officer, and had attended to the details 
of his toilet with a minuteness bordering on fop- 
pery. He wore a large French cocked hat, with a 
gold loop and button and the tricolor cockade, a 
blue surtout-coat and blue pantaloons and half- 
boots. Around his neck was a white cravat, encir- 
cled by a black stock, very full and projecting, 
which the executioner presently removed in order 
to adjust the noose. The forty minutes that 
elapsed between the doomed man's arrival under 
the fatal beam and the completion of the hang- 
man's task he passed in conversation with Bri- 
gade-Major Sandes, and until the very last no 
tremor was perceptible in his voice. Matthew 
Tone suffered death in a similar manner some days 
afterward. 

The fate of these two men aroused a storm of 
indignation throughout France, where they were 
justly considered the victims of a breach of inter- 
national right. Thomas Paine, the great freethinker, 
sent an appropriate protest to the Directory, recall- 
ing the case of General Lee, of the American army, 
whom the English were only deterred from hanging 
as a traitor by a threat of immediate retaliation.' 
The writer urged that the English officers captured 
at Ostend in the preceding month of May be held 
as hostages for the French officers of whatever 

' See Appendix for the letter in full. 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 143 

descent that had fallen into the hands of the en- 
emy. He referred more particularly to the prison- 
ers captured on October 12th of the same year, 
when a French fleet, destined to renew Humbert's 
attempt on Ireland, succumbed to a superior naval 
force off Lough Swilly. The Directory, however, 
in view of the disproportion between the numbers 
of prisoners in the hands of France and England — 
the balance being much in favor of the latter — felt 
themselves powerless to act, and thus Theobald 
Wolfe Tone, who accompanied the fourth expedi- 
tion, fell a victim to the same relentless power that 
had destroyed his brother. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A Second Battle of Castlebar — Defeat of the Insurgents — The Three 
French Officers left at Killala — Their Efforts to suppress Relig- 
ious Persecution — Riot and Lawlessness the Order of the Day — 
Advance of the Royal Armies— Battle of Killala. 




HILE effectually disposing 
of Humbert's '! Army of 
Ireland," the surrender of 
Ballinamuck did not end 
the era of bloodshed in the 
unfortunate province of Con- 
naught. Undismayed by the 
reverses of their would-be 



^'^^^Cr^^^^. deliverers, the rebels scattered along 
the line of the River Moy from 
Killala to Foxford maintained their defiant atti- 



tude. More than that, barely three days after the 
surrender, 2,000 of them left BalHna under the 
leadership of Major O'Keon and Patrick Barrett, 
a former member of the local militia, for the pur- 
pose of retaking the town of Castlebar, which, as 
stated, had fallen into the hands of the British 
after Humbert's withdrawal. 



FRENCH INVASION OF IRELAND. 145 

In the early dawn of September I2th two citi- 
zens of the town, Edward Mayley and John Dud- 
geon, while stationed as pickets in the northern 
suburb, heard the thud of horses' hoofs approach- 
ing from the direction of the gap of Barnageehy, 
and presently descried two horsemen riding at a 
furious pace. The pickets sprang into the middle 
of the road and challenged the strangers with a 
" Who goes there ? " "A friend," said the fore- 
most rider, drawing in his rein. " A friend to 
whom ? " " To the French," was the reply. " Oh, 
very well," returned the pickets ; " where are you 
going?" The strangers happened to be recon- 
noiterers of the advancing rebel army, and, ignorant 
peasants that they were, felt so jubilant at the dis- 
tinction conferred upon them by their leaders that 
they gave free rein to their tongues. " We are 
going to take Castlebar," they explained ; " we are 
captains, and there are 2,000 men following within 
half a mile of us." Scarcely had the words passed 
their lips when the pickets seized the bridles and, 
levelling their weapons at the riders' heads, ordered 
them to deliver up their arms under pain of instant 
death. The two rebels, who had evidently mis- 
taken their adversaries for friends, surrendered on 
the spot and allowed themselves to be taken as 
prisoners into the town, where their captors raised 
an immediate alarm. This action doubtless saved 
Castlebar from recapture and probable pillage, for 
its defenders consisted only of a small body of 



146 THE FRENCH INVASION 

Fraser Fencibles, thirty-four armed townsmen, and 
a corps of yeomanry cavalry ; an insufficient force 
at any time, but especially so when laboring under 
the disadvantages of a surprise. 

Here again it were better to insert the words of 
one of the badly frightened citizens, some of whose 
reminiscences have already been quoted in a pre- 
ceding chapter : " They (the pickets) entered the 
town shouting ' Murder ! murder ! Arise to arms, 
or you will be burned in your beds ! ' This echoed 
so loud, all the town rung with it ; hundreds re- 
peated it. Men, undressed, rushed into the streets ; 
incessant rain heavily descended ; the drums beat 
* to arms ! to arms ! ' whilst the dark, solitary walls 
reechoed * to arms ! to arms ! ! ! ' At last the tem- 
pest silenced the drum ; but no cause could allay 
the vigilance of our townsmen and the gallant hand- 
ful of Erasers. The guards continued to bring in 
prisoners till morning. At last welcome day shone 
upon our afflicted town. To me it afforded much 
consolation, my wife being in the pangs of child- 
bearing all night ; though, I thought, will light 
save us? No; only serve to display our danger. 
Thus hope and apprehension bent alternately the 
balance. At length all our forebodings are con- 
firmed by a discovery of the plodding assassins, 
planted to great advantage around the northwest 
part of our devoted town." ' 

It was fortunate for the Protestant population that 

^Jones' N'arrative, page 303. 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 1^7 

their fate lay in the hands of so able and energetic 
an officer as the commandant, Captain Urquhart. 
At the very first note of alarm he assembled his 
men in the market-place, and assigned them to 
the most advantageous posts of defence. The main 
body occupied the market cross, commanding the 
principal avenues, with the only piece of cannon in 
town ; another division was posted between the 
market-house and one of the city gates ; and a 
third, composed partly of cavalry, he stationed at 
the north end, where the rebels were expected to 
make their main attack. With a view to insuring 
the safety of his small army in case of a retreat, 
the captain placed a guard of infantry in a west- 
ern street near the bridge, and a few cavalrymen at 
the south entrance, on an eminence opposite the 
church. 

In this order the little army anxiously awaited 
the expected attack, the issue of which, consider- 
ing the enormous numerical superiority of the foe, 
seemed scarcely doubtful. By seven o'clock the 
rebels had concentrated their forces near the north 
entrance and opened a heavy fire of musketry on 
the devoted town. It was answered with much 
spirit by the Highlanders, The latter, being under 
cover, experienced little or no loss, while their oppo- 
nents were picked off by the dozen. Seeing this. 
Major O'Keon formed a column of assault and 
made a dash forward, with the object of gaining 
possession of the first line of defence. Smarting 



148 THE FRENCH INVASION 

under their losses, the rebels rushed furiously to 
the attack. Some were armed with matchlocks, 
some with pikes, and the remainder with a variety 
of weapons improvised for the occasion. They 
were received with equal bravery by the Highland- 
ers and townsmen, who for the time being re- 
mained steadfastly within their defences, firing with 
method and precision. At last, at a critical mo- 
ment, Mr. John Galagher, of the volunteer corps, 
seized by a sudden impulse, broke from the ranks 
and attacked the rebels at close quarters. His 
brother, the captain of the corps, did likewise, and 
their example was immediately followed by the rest 
of the defenders in that section. So impetuous 
was the charge that the rebel column scattered 
before it like chafT and fled from the field in dire 
panic, carrying with it O'Keon's reserves. With 
the exception of a small detachment under Lieu- 
tenant Denham, which remained behind to guard 
the town, Urquhart now led his full force in pur- 
suit of the fugitives. Scores of these were cut 
down by the cavalry or compelled to surrender, 
and some who attempted to escape by way of the 
Castlebar River and lake were engulfed in their 
waters. 

The complete defeat of O'Keon's army must be 
regarded as a blessing, even by those who have the 
Irish cause most at heart. So inflamed were the 
rebels by the exhortations of their fanatic spiritual 
guides and their desire to avenge the massacres in 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 1 49 

Wexford and Kildare, that the capture of Castle- 
bar would inevitably have been accompanied by the 
wholesale butchery of the loyalist inhabitants, and 
that in spite of the restraining influence of O'Keon 
and Barrett, both men of judgment and humanity. 
In fact, one prisoner, with his neck torn by a ball 
and two bullets in his body, confessed, between his 
dying gasps, that it had been the intention of 
many of his associates to plunder the town and 
destroy every man, woman and child in it, includ- 
ing even the loyal Catholics ! The feeling of relief 
that pervaded all when they beheld the distant hills 
swarming with the flying foe may therefore well be 
conceived. 

Before describing the closing act of the drama, 
namely, the recapture of the last strongholds of 
the rebellion along the River Moy, it will be neces- 
sary to dwell at some length upon the condition 
of that section from the moment that Humbert's 
march to the north left it virtually in rebel hands. 
Thanks to Bishop Stock's admirable work, so often 
referred to in these pages, authentic material is 
plentiful on the subject. When the two hundred 
French infantry withdrew from Killala, in the be- 
ginning of September, to reenforce the main army 
at Castlebar, there remained in that town but two 
officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Charost and Captain 
Ponson ; and they were joined later by Captain 
Boudet, whom the advance of a loyal detachment 
had forced from his station at Westport. To the 



I50 THE FRENCH INVASION 

united efforts of these three heroes may be attrib- 
uted the salvation of the Protestant population 
from what, at moments, appeared to be inevitable 
destruction. 

Charost himself was a man of charming and sym- 
pathetic personality. To many he will appear an 
even more interesting figure than Humbert. A 
Parisian by birth, he settled in San Domingo early 
in life, and subsequently married well ; but the war 
between France and England brought desolation to 
him, as it had done to many others. He lost all his 
property, and even his wife and only child, who 
were captured while on their passage to France, 
and taken to Jamaica. Unable to obtain any tidings 
of them the poor man from sheer desperation en- 
listed in the French service, and worked his way up 
to a lieutenant-colonelcy. Generous, humane, and 
mild in manner, but notwithstanding this firm and 
courageous in an emergency, he soon earned the 
respect of Protestants and Catholics alike. In re- 
ligious convictions he was practically a freethinker. 
He told the bishop that " his father being a Catho- 
lic and his mother a Protestant, they had left him 
the liberty of choosing for himself, and he had 
never yet found time to make the inquiry, which, 
however, he was sensible he ought to make, and 
would make at some time, when Heaven should 
grant him repose. In the interim he believed in 
God, was inclined to think there must be a future 
state, and was very sure that while he lived in this 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. I5I 

world it was his duty to do all the good to his 
fellow-creatures that he could." The well-inten- 
tioned prelate appears to have attempted Charost's 
conversion, but with indifferent success. He gives 
him credit, however, for respecting the beliefs of 
others, and taking scrupulous care, among other 
things, that the divine services of the Protestants 
at the castle at Killala should not be disturbed in 
any manner whatever. 

Ponson and Boudet, though each interesting in 
his own way, lacked some of the sterling qualities 
of their superior. The former was a curious little 
body, not exceeding five feet six inches in height, of 
most buoyant temperament. He was a Navarrese 
by birth, " and," says the bishop, " his merry coun- 
tenance recalled to mind the features of Henry of 
Navarre, though without the air of benevolence 
through them ; for this monkey seemed to have no 
great feeling for anybody but himself. He was 
hardy, and patient to admiration of labor and want 
of rest. A continued watching of five days and 
nights together, when the rebels were growing des- 
perate for prey and mischief, did not appear to sink 
his spirits in the smallest degree. He was ready at 
the smallest notice to sally out on the marauders, 
whom, if he caught them in the act, he belabored 
without mercy and without a symptom of fear for 
his own safety. He was strictly honest, and could 
not bear the want of this quality in others ; so that 
his patience was pretty well tried by his Irish allies, 



152 THE FRENCH INVASION 

for whom he could not find names sufficiently ex- 
pressive of contempt." 

In startling contrast to Ponson, Boudet, the later 
acquisition to the French "garrison," is described as 
being a man six feet two inches in height, " In 
person, complexion and gravity," says the bishop, 
" he was no inadequate representation of the Knight 
of La Mancha, whose example he followed in a 
recital of his own prowess and wonderful exploits, 
delivered in measured language and an imposing 
seriousness of aspect. His manner, however, 
though distant was polite, and he seemed possessed 
of more than common share of feeling, if a judg- 
ment might be formed from the energy with which 
he declaimed on the miseries of wars and revolu- 
tions. His integrity and courage appeared unques- 
tionable. On the whole, when we became familiar- 
ized to his failings, we saw reason every day to 
respect his virtues." 

Regarding True, the French officer left at Bal- 
lina, the bishop's verdict is not so favorable. He 
denounces him as a man of evil disposition, lacking 
both in common honesty and courage. True shared 
his authority with O'Keon, and both stood under 
the orders of Charost. 

The first problem that presented itself to the 
commandant after the departure of his men for 
the front related to the means of maintaining the 
security of the large district intrusted to him, em- 
bracing as it did many square miles of rugged coun- 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 153 

try, an extensive seaboard, and the towns of Killala 
and Ballina. This whole section was swarming with 
the armed bands of insurgents who had remained 
behind for the purpose of pkindering the Protestant 
landholders in preference to joining the French in 
the field. They numbered several thousands, and 
might have constituted a sufficiently marked acces- 
sion of strength to have changed the course of 
events. In consequence of their turbulence and 
lawlessness a strong guard at first nightly patrolled 
the town of Killala and its suburbs ; but as this 
measure did not suffice to preserve the peace, Char- 
ost decided to offer the proper means of self-defence 
to every well-disposed citizen. By a special procla- 
mation the inhabitants of both persuasions were 
invited to come to the castle and receive arms and 
ammunition, with no other condition than the prom- 
ise of restoring them on demand. The offer was 
eagerly accepted by Protestants and Catholics alike, 
but the result was a failure after all. From the very 
first the insurgents protested against the arming of 
their loyalist fellow-townsmen, their argument being 
that the weapons would surely be turned against 
themselves. The protestations soon turned into 
menaces, which so intimidated some of the Protes- 
tants that they returned the arms on the very night 
they had received them. The insurgents, not satis- 
fied with this, adopted, on the few following days, 
the tactics of harassing the loyalist minority with 
domiciliary visits, ostensibly for the purpose of 



154 THE FRENCH INVASION 

searching for concealed weapons, so that from sheer 
desperation the unfortunates finally petitioned the 
commandant to call in by proclamation all the arms 
he had given out, excepting those in use by the re- 
cruits for the French service. With a lively appre- 
ciation of the situation Charost granted their re- 
quest, and applied himself to devise another means 
for ending the depredations that were terrorizing 
the community. 

In imitation of the methods employed by Hum- 
bert in the town of Castlebar, he issued a procla- 
mation some days later, establishing a provisional 
government over the district within his care. He 
divided it into departments, each presided over by 
a magistrate, attended by an armed guard of sixteen 
or twenty men. None of these were required to 
declare themselves either for or against the king, 
being simply considered civil ofificers engaged in the 
service of keeping the peace. Mr. James Devitt, 
a substantial Roman Catholic tradesman of good 
sense and moderation, was unanimously elected civil 
magistrate for Killala, and thenceforth the town 
was regularly policed by three bodies of fifty men 
each, all standing directly under his orders. 

However, as time wore on the task of restraining 
the evil passions of the ignorant multitude became 
truly herculean. Covetous eyes were cast at the 
bishop's residence, where, in addition to his family, 
the three French of^cers were housed. Few dwell- 
ings offered more temptations than his, for besides 



OF IRELAND IN *gS. 155 

his own property it contained many valuables de- 
posited in his keeping by the Protestant inhabitants 
during the first fright occasioned by the landing of 
the French. For the defence of the castle a guard 
about twenty strong was drawn from the garrison. 
The men were relieved once in twenty-four hours, 
but even they constituted a poor guarantee for the 
security of the household, imbued as they were 
with the idea that all Protestant possessions were 
rightfully theirs. At times the situation was most 
alarming, and only the tact and nerve of the com- 
mandant averted the threatened explosion. 

On one occasion a drunken fellow named Toby 
Flannigan, who had promoted himself to the rank 
of major, arrested a Mr. Goodwin, a Protestant, for 
no other reason than that he was a Protestant. 
Word of the affair was brought to Charost while 
engaged in a game of piquet at the castle, and im- 
mediately the whole party repaired to the scene of 
the trouble. They found the " major" mounted on 
his charger, drunk and vociferous, surrounded by an 
admiring mob. Charost's order to release the pris- 
oner was met by an impudent refusal. It was a 
critical moment. Failure to enforce his authority 
would have released anarchy and all its attendant 
horrors. Charost immediately ordered Flannigan 
to dismount. There was a ring of determination 
in his voice that brooked no delay. The culprit 
looked at his adherents for support, and finding 
none sullenly obeyed. Charost with his own hands 



156 THE FRENCH INVASION 

divested him of his sword and pistols, and sent him 
under a guard of his own followers to the very jail 
that had opened its doors to the Protestant victim. 
This incident terminated Mr. Toby Flannigan's 
martial career. 

Although the nominal head of almost all Mayo, 
Charost's personal influence extended, unfortu- 
nately, little beyond the immediate vicinity of 
Killala. At Ballina, thanks to the supineness or 
connivance of True, the insurgents were able to 
carry things with a high hand. Father Owen 
Cowley, of Castleconnor, was their leader. Being a 
master of the French tongue he had ingratiated 
himself in Truc's favor, and soon wielded almost 
unlimited authority over the town and its environs. 
His ulterior object seems to have been the extirpa- 
tion of the heretics, and in pursuance thereof he 
steadily and deliberately labored to instil the poison 
of hatred and distrust into the Frenchman's mind. 
On the pretence of securing the young republic 
against the machinations of inside enemies, Cowley 
sent out bands of armed insurgents to arrest and 
bring to town the Protestant farmers of the neigh- 
borhood ; and in a few days over sixty of these 
poor people, after seeing their houses demolished, 
were committed to a temporary jail in the house 
of Colonel Henry King. Having made sure of his 
prey, Cowley's next step was to gain permission to 
destroy them, but here he found an unexpected 
obstacle in the opposition of O'Keon and Barrett. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. I $7 

Suspecting the priest's designs Barrett interrogated 
him, and was haughtily told that True had given 
orders for the execution of the prisoners. Barrett 
flew to the chief, and through an interpreter laid 
the matter before him. It then transpired that 
Cowley had lied — a fact that Barrett took good care 
to charge him with in the most public manner. 
The young man's temerity, however, nearly cost 
him his life, for while he was still speaking one of 
the priest's followers made a lunge at him with a 
pike, and only his precipitate retreat saved him 
from the fury of the bloodthirsty mob.' 

Cowley's methods and intentions savored strongly 
of the good old inquisition days. On the night of 
September 8th, about twelve o'clock, this disciple of 
Torquemada entered the improvised jail to gloat 
over his victims. They were packed together like 
sheep, in a room scarcely large enough to hold half 
their number. Surmising that in the confusion 
attending their arrest some Catholics might have 
been included, he greeted them with the words : 
" Lie down. Orange ; rise up, Croppy." Robert 
Atkinson, of Ballybeg, one of the prisoners, noticed 
the speaker's clerical garb and approached him 
with a request for protection, but for answer re- 
ceived a stunning blow over the head with a heavy 
bludgeon. Cowley worked himself into a passion, 
and shaking his fist at the unfortunates, exclaimed : 
" You parcel of heretics have no more religion than 

' Musgrave's Memoirs, page 629. 



158 THE FRENCH INVASION 

a parcel of pigs. I do not know whether you will 
be put to death before ten o'clock to-morrow by- 
being burned with barrels of tar, or by pikes, or 
by balls! " ' He supplemented this agreeable pro- 
gramme by adding his doubts whether balls " would 
find room in their bodies." The priest's sanguinary 
intentions were happily not carried into effect, for 
when Charost's attention was called to the danger 
of the Protestants he came in person to Ballina, 
and reprimanded True severely for listening to any 
accusations on the score of religion. He ordered 
all persons arrested by Cowley's henchmen to be 
brought before him, spent a full day in their exam- 
ination, and discharged every one of them. The 
poor wretches were free to return to their homes. 
To many that word meant but a heap of ashes. 

A volume, indeed, would not contain the list of 
outrages committed in the name of Romanism and 
— strange concomitant — Liberty ! The malice of 
the insurgents was early directed against a Presby- 
terian meeting-house between Killala and Ballina. 
It had been built for the worship of a small colony 
of weavers brought from the north by the Earl of 
Arran. Their pastor, the Reverend Mr. Marshall, 
had devoted himself to fitting it up in a style 
worthy of its character, and so universally was he 
respected that all the Protestant gentry of the 
neighborhood had contributed to its embellishment. 

' Affidavits of William Stenson, John Armstrong and Robert 
Atkinson. Musgrave's Memoirs., Appendix, page 164. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 159 

The building was utterly demolished in the begin- 
ning of September, and the congregation suffered 
much at the hands of the insurgents. Castlereagh, 
the seat of Arthur Knox, and Castle Lacken, the 
property of Sir John Palmer, were also pillaged 
by an organized band of marauders, and but for 
his indomitable pluck Mr. Bourke, of Summerhill, 
would have suffered in a like manner. 

News of these various outrages having been 
brought to Killala, Charost despatched Boudet and 
Edwin Stock, one of the bishop's sons, to Summer- 
hill to appease the mob, and another party of men 
to Castlereagh to save what remained of the pro- 
visions and liquors. The appearance of the emis- 
saries ended the siege at Mr. Bourke's house; but 
the Castlereagh party, which consisted entirely of 
natives, could think of no better expedient for pre- 
serving the spirits from the thirsty bandits that 
coveted them than by concealing as much as they 
could in their own stomachs. The consequence 
was that they returned to Killala uproariously 
drunk. As for Castle Lacken, it was completely 
gutted, and the occupant and his large family were 
driven out to seek shelter as best they could find it. 
Charost's indignation at such barbarity knew no 
bounds. He told the insurgents that he was a CJicf 
de Brigade, not a CJief dc Brigands, and declared 
that if he ever caught them preparing to despoil 
and murder Protestants, he would side with the lat- 
ter to the very last extremity. 



l6o THE FRENCH INVASION 

In the meanwhile the suspense at Killala, with 
reference to the progress of the miHtary operations 
in the east, had . waxed acute. Contradictory- 
rumors of an alarmist nature were constantly filling 
the air, and it was not until September 12th, the 
day of O'Keon's ill-fated attack on Castlebar, that 
some definite information reached the authorities at 
the castle. On the evening of that day William 
Charles Fortescue, nephew of Lord Clermont, was 
sent in a prisoner from Ballina, and from him 
Charost learned of the capitulation of Humbert's 
force at Ballinamuck. The commandant now felt 
that a crisis was approaching, for, aware of the tem- 
per of the insurgents, he had reason to fear that in 
the fury of their wrath and despair they would 
attempt the massacre of every Protestant in town. 
Conceiving his task of annoying the enemies of his 
country to be concluded for the present, he looked 
to nothing further than the preserving of peace and 
quiet round about him until the arrival of a regular 
British force should allow him and his companions 
to surrender without discredit. In pursuance of 
this determination, and with the distinct purpose to 
shed his own blood, if necessary, in the defence of 
the threatened loyalists, he took immediate steps 
to meet the requirements of the situation. In the 
apartments occupied by the three officers twelve 
loaded carbines were kept in readiness, and among 
the seven or eight trusted members of the bishop's 
household a variety of weapons were distributed. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. l6l 

Henceforth the Frenchmen remained constantly on 
the alert, watching not only all newcomers and ap- 
plicants at the castle gate, but also their own guard 
of twenty men. 

The precautions were by no means superfluous. 
Day by day the prospect grew more threatening. 
On September i8th intelligence of General Trench's 
preparations to march an army against them from 
Castlebar caused the insurgent leaders to send in a 
demand to Charost that the Protestants be impris- 
oned in the cathedral as hostages. This he flatly 
refused to do. The next day an angry crowd gath- 
ered about the castle gate, complaining that their 
friends and relations in Castlebar were being ill- 
treated by the British. To quiet them the bishop 
suggested that two emissaries be despatched to Gen- 
eral Trench for the purpose of entreating him to do 
nothing to his prisoners of a nature to provoke re-, 
prisals on the Protestants at Killala. The proposi- 
tion met with immediate approval. Roger Maguire, 
son of a Crossmalina brewer, and Dean Thompson, 
who with his family had occupied the bishop's 
apartments since the appearance of the French, 
were selected for the mission, and early on the fol- 
lowing morning they started out on their perilous 
journey. 

Their departure did not effect the desired truce. 
A false report that the English were approaching 
served to recall to town, on the 20th, a number of 
pikemen whom the commandant had induced, the 



1 62 THE FRENCH INVASION 

evening before, to return to their homes. Rioting 
and drunkenness became the order of the day. For 
the fourth or fifth time the house of Mr. Rutledge, 
the customs ofificer, was attacked by a band of ruf- 
fians in search of plunder. To restore quiet Ponson 
was called from his couch, where he was sleep- 
ing off the fatigues of the previous night. Single- 
handed he rushed upon the crowd and felled the 
foremost man to the ground with a blow from a 
musket. The fury of his charge put the entire band 
to flight. On the 2ist another disorderly mob ap- 
peared at the castle gates and clamored for permis- 
sion to arrest Mr. Bourke, of Summerhill, whose 
defiant attitude had aroused their ire. They de- 
clared that he was abusing his Catholic neighbors. 
Charost told them curtly to go to Summerhill if 
they pleased, but added that he would follow them 
up and fire upon them if he caught them in the act 
of plundering the house. Later in the day the 
commandant, by his presence of mind, averted an- 
other danger. Just as he was sitting down to din- 
ner word was brought to him that a party of tur- 
bulent pikemen had assembled outside the castle, 
bent on plunder. Charost walked out leisurely, 
accompanied by his two ofificers, and found them 
preparing to batter in the gates. In his ordinary 
tone of command he called "attention," divided 
them into platoons, and proceeded to put them 
through their daily exercise. His nonchalance 
completely nonplussed them, and, occupied with 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 1 63 

their drill, they were effectually diverted from mis- 
chief. 

Much to the relief of the castle's inmates, the two 
emissaries returned the same evening from Castle- 
bar. They brought a letter to the bishop from 
General Trench, giving full assurances regarding the 
treatment of the rebel prisoners. This was read 
to the insurgents, and appeared to reassure them. 
More consoling to the bishop was the information, 
privately imparted by Dean Thompson, that owing 
to the situation in Killala the general had decided 
to commence his march two days earlier than he 
had intended, and would probably reach them on 
Sunday morning, the 23d. 

The preparations on the part of the British to 
suppress the insurrection in northwest Connaught 
had been considerably delayed by the ominous 
symptoms in the centre of the island. There, as 
has been shown in the foregoing chapter, an insur- 
rectionary movement of great magnitude had been 
set on foot in the beginning of September, the 
intention of the rebels being to cooperate with 
Humbert's army on its march to Dublin. The 
surrender of Rallinamuck upset their plans, and 
none of the projected raids took place; but Lord 
Cornwallis deemed it imprudent to detach any 
troops from the main army until he had fully as- 
sured himself that all danger from a renewed out- 
break was over. And thus it came to pass that 
fully ten days elapsed between the battle of Balli- 



164 THE FRENCH INVASION 

namuck and General Trench's appearance in Cas- 
tlebar with a force destined to restore the king's 
authority over the entire province. 

Trench was determined that no loophole of escape 
should be left to the rebel forces. His plan was to 
attack them from different sides, leaving them no 
alternative but to surrender or be driven into the 
sea. Lord Portarlington, who was stationed at Sligo 
with the Queen's County Regiment, a small body of 
the 24th Light Dragoons, and several corps of yeo- 
manry, was ordered to march to Ballina and form 
a junction there with the main body from Castle- 
bar; and at the same time a force of 300 of the 
Armagh militia at Foxford, under Major Ache- 
son, and another 300 men at Newport, under Colo- 
nel Fraser, were to converge to the same point 
from their respective stations.' Lord Portarling- 
ton's troops, being the farthest off from the com- 
mon destination, were the first to move. Almost 
1,000 strong, with two pieces of field artillery, they 
started from Sligo on the morning of September 
2 1 St. They were not molested until nightfall, when 
a body of rebels approached them at their halting- 
place, near the village of Grange. One cannon-shot 
sufficed to disperse the assailants. The British did 
not get off so easily on the following night. They 
had scarcely entered the village of Scarmore when 
they were attacked by a column of pikemen, who 

' Extracts from General Trench's letters, dated Killala, Sept. 24th 
and 26th, 1798. — Jones' A'arrative, page 385. 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 1 65 

had advanced from Ballina under the command of 
O'Keon and Barrett. A prolonged and obstinate 
encounter followed, in which the insurgents were at 
length worsted. Before the commencement of the 
action, a number of Protestant farmers living in the 
neighboring hamlet of Carrowcarden had been im. 
pressed into service by the pikemen, and in order 
to insure their cooperation they were placed in the 
first line of battle. The natural consequence of 
this proceeding was their absolute annihilation by 
the royal troops. 

The three remaining British divisions began their 
march on Saturday, September 22d. Major Ache- 
son was vigorously assailed by a rebel command, 
but succeeded in beating them off. General 
Trench, whose army was composed of the Rox- 
burgh light dragoons, the Devonshire, the Kerry 
and the Prince of Wales' Fencible Regiments, the 
Tyrawley cavalry and two curricle guns, took the 
road that had been made memorable by Humbert's 
advance to Castlebar. His progress was slow, 
for the rain, falling unceasingly, had converted 
the highways into beds of slime. The division en- 
tered Crossmalina Saturday night, worn out with 
the wearisome march. News of their approach 
reached Killala in the afternoon, and the pikemen 
at once demanded to be led against the foe ; for 
with all their bigotry and ruflfianism these uncouth 
peasants were never lacking in animal courage. 
Ferdy O'Donnell, of Erris, one of their leaders, 



1 66 THE FRENCH INVASION 

placed himself at their head, and the march began. 
At Rappa the commander was taken sick and the 
little army halted ; but a reconnoitring party of 
three mounted men, including Roger Maguire, al- 
ready mentioned, pushed forward as far as the out- 
skirts of Crossmalina. They there fell in with a 
picket of sixteen cavalry, whom they boldly at- 
tacked and put to flight, actually following the fugi- 
tives into the town itself. The weakness of the re- 
connoitring party was concealed by the darkness, 
and their appearance caused a veritable alarm — the 
drums beating to arms and the soldiers rushing 
wildly through the streets. Having attained the 
object of the reconnoissance the riders departed at 
full gallop to rejoin their comrades, whom they dis- 
suaded from continuing the march, on the ground 
that too little ammunition was on hand for a gen- 
eral engagement. 

The march of General Trench's division was re- 
sumed at daybreak on the 23d, and in a couple of 
hours it entered Ballina to find the town already 
occupied by Lord Portarlington. True and O'Keon 
had fled at the latter's approach, with the remnant 
of their followers. No time was now lost in push- 
ing the operations to a final issue. In order to cut 
off all the avenues from Killala Trench divided his 
forces, and while advancing with one division by 
the common highway, he sent the Kerry regiment 
of militia and some cavalry, under the orders of 
Lieutenant-Colonel Crosby and Maurice Fitzgerald 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. l6y 

(commonly known as the Knight of Kerry), to the 
same destination by a detour through the village of 
Rappa. It is a circumstance worthy of comment 
that, in spite of the difference in their routes, the 
two divisions reached Killala at about the same 
time. 

Bishop Stock thus describes the engagement that 
followed : " The peaceful inhabitants of Killala 
were now to be spectators of a scene they had 
never expected to behold — a battle ; a sight which 
no person that has seen it once and possesses the 
feelings of a human creature would choose to wit- 
ness a second time. A troop of fugitives from Bal- 
lina, women and children tumbling over one another 
to get into the castle, or into any house in the town 
where they might hope for a momentary shelter, 
continued, for a painful length of time, to give 
notice of the approach of an army. The rebels 
quitted their camp to occupy the rising ground 
close by the town, on the road to Ballina, posting 
themselves under the low stone walls on each side 
in such a manner as enabled them, with great ad- 
vantage, to take aim at the king's troops. The two 
divisions of the royal army were supposed to make 
up about 1,200 men, and they had five pieces of 
cannon. The number of the rebels could not be 
ascertained. Many ran away before the engage- 
ment, while a very considerable number flocked 
into the town in the very heat of it, passing under 
the castle windows, in view of the French officers 



1 68 THE FRENCH INVASION 

on horseback, and running upon death with as little 
appearance of reflection or concern as if they were 
hastening to a show. About 400 of these mis- 
guided men fell in the battle and immediately after 
it ; whence it may be conjectured that their entire 
number scarcely exceeded 800 or 900. 

" We kept our eyes on the rebels. They levelled 
their pieces, fired very deliberately from each side 
on the advancing enemy : yet (strange to tell) were 
able only to kill one man, a corporal, and wound 
one common soldier. Their shot, in general, went 
over the heads of their opponents. A regiment of 
Highlanders (Fraser's Fencibles) filed off to the 
right and left to flank the fusileers behind the 
hedges and walls ; they had marshy ground on the 
left to surmount before they could come upon their 
object, which occasioned some delay, but at length 
they reached them and made sad havoc among 
them. Then followed the Queen's County militia 
and the Devonshire, which last regiment had a great 
share in the honor of the day. After a resistance 
of about twenty minutes, the rebels began to fly in 
all directions, and were pursued by the Roxburgh 
Cavalry into the town in full cry. This was not 
agreeable to military practice, according to which 
it is usual to commit the assault of a town to the 
infantry ; but here the general wisely reversed the 
mode, in order to prevent the rebels, by a rapid 
pursuit, from taking shelter in the houses of towns- 
folk, a circumstance which was likely to provoke 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 1 69 

indiscriminate slaughter and pillage. It happened 
that the measure was attended with the desired 
success. A great number were cut down in the 
streets, and of the remainder but a few were able to 
escape into the houses, being either pushed through 
the town till they fell in with the Kerry militia 
from Crossmalina, or obliged to take to the shore, 
where it winds round a promontory forming one of 
the horns of the Bay of Killala. And here, too, 
the fugitives were swept away by scores, a cannon 
being placed on the opposite side of the bay which 
did great execution. 

" In spite of the exertions of the general and his 
ofificers, the town exhibited almost all the marks of 
a place taken by storm. Some houses were per- 
forated like a riddle ; most of them had their doors 
and windows destroyed, the trembling inhabitants 
scarcely escaping with life by lying prostrate on the 
floor. Nor was it till the close of the next day 
that our ears were relieved from the horrid sound 
of muskets discharged every minute at flying and 
powerless rebels. The plague of war so often visits 
the world that we are apt to listen to any descrip- 
tion of it with the indifference of satiety ; it is act- 
ual inspection only that shows the monster in its 
proper deformity. 

" What heart can forget the impression it has re- 
ceived from the glance of a fellow-creature pleading 
for his life, with a crowd of bayonets at his breast? 
The eye of Demosthenes never emitted so penetrat- 



I/O THE FRENCH INVASION 

ing a beam in his most enraptured flight of oratory. 
Such a man was dragged before the bishop on the 
day after the battle, while the hand of slaughter 
was still in pursuit of the unresisting peasants 
through the town. In the agonies of terror the 
prisoner thought to save his life by crying out ' that 
he was known to the bishop.' Alas ! the bishop 
knew him not ; neither did he look like a good man. 
But the arms and the whole body of the person to 
whom he flew for protection were over him imme- 
diately. Memory suggested rapidly : 

" ' What a piece of workmansliip is man ! tiie beauty of the 
world, the paragon of animals ! And are you gomg to de- 
face this admirable work ? ' — Hamlet. 

"As indeed they did. For, though the soldiers 
promised to let the unfortunate man remain in 
custody till he should have a trial, yet, when they 
found he was not known, they pulled him out of 
the court-yard as soon as the bishop's back was 
turned, and shot him at the gate." 

This engagement, so graphically described, nearly 
proved disastrous to the brave men whose advocacy 
of the great principle of religious liberty had already 
exposed them to so many perils. In the indiscrimi- 
nate slaughter which followed the battle, the royal 
troops, elate with victory and inflamed by revenge, 
showed small respect for persons. Charost's escape 
from death was almost miraculous. After having 
done his share in the defence of the rebel position, 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. I /I 

he had returned to the castle and surrendered his 
sword to a British officer. As he turned to enter 
the hall he was shot at by a Highlander who had 
forced his way past the sentinel at the gate. The 
ball fortunately passed under Charost's arm and 
pierced the heavy oaken door. The English officer 
here interposed and tendered an apology for the 
soldier's act. It is needless to say that every cour- 
tesy was shown to the French prisoners after this, 
exception being made of O'Keon only, who, in spite 
of his rank in the French army and his claim to 
French citizenship, was some days later sent a 
prisoner to Castlebar to be tried for high treason. 
In response to Bishop Stock's appeal in his behalf, 
he was acquitted of the charge, but enjoined to 
leave the country on the shortest notice. 

Two days after the battle the three French offi- 
cers were ordered to Dublin, and on»e can readily 
believe the bishop's assertion that he parted with 
them " not without tears." The story of their hon- 
orable and courageous attitude during the long 
period of disorders having preceded them to the 
capital, they were received there with many marks 
of consideration, and they enjoyed the hospitality 
of no less a person than the lord primate himself. 
On the report of Bishop Stock the British Govern- 
ment offered to return them to the French author- 
ities without exchange, but this act of courtesy 
was not accepted by Niou, the French commissary. 
These men, he declared, had merely followed their 



172 THE FRENCH INVASION 

line of duty. They had done no more than what 
was expected of any French officer in a like situa- 
tion. They were therefore not entitled to special 
favors. 

The fate of the insurgents who escaped sword 
and bayonet was a far different one. A court- 
martial to try them began its sessions on Monday 
morning, the 24th of September, and early on Tues- 
day the first two victims were handed over to the 
executioner. These were an irresponsible drunkard 
named Bellew and one Richard Bourke, of Bellina. 
The authority of the Crown continued to be as- 
serted in a ruthless manner for many weeks after- 
ward, and even six months later fresh victims were 
found to swell the lengthy list. There has been no 
hesitation in pointing out in these pages the many 
acts of insurgent ruffianism prompted by religious 
intolerance and race and political hatred ; but it is 
only justice to add that ruffianism and rapacity 
constitute the worst charges that can be preferred 
against the unfortunate peasants engaged, after all, 
in a struggle with a galling despotism. In the 
words of Bishop Stock, " during the whole time of 
civil commotion not a drop of blood was shed by 
the Connaught rebels, except in the field of war." 
This circumstance should in all justice have carried 
some weight with the conquerors and have dictated 
a policy of mildness and conciliation, instead of one 
of blood and fire. Yet what could be expected of 
men who in the name of the kinsr and the constitu- 



OF IRELAND IN 'q8. 1 73 

tion had already, months before, turned the most 
flourishing parts of the land into a wilderness? 



And thus ended General Humbert's glorious but 
abortive expedition, as insufficiently supported by 
the French Government as by the United Irish- 
men. Any further examination into the various 
causes that contributed to the maintenance of Brit- 
ish misrule in the afflicted country would be su- 
perfluous here. The foregoing narration of fact 
speaks for itself, and fully answers the question. 
The careful reader can only deduce the inference 
that the principal cause lay in the Irish people 
themselves. The fate of the expedition became a 
foregone conclusion from the moment the rebels 
showed their colors. Their inability to separate 
the political from the religious idea made them 
the subservient tools of men whose one aim was to 
supplant the reigning despotism with a theocracy 
no less tyrannical. Had they been imbued with 
the same broad and liberal spirit which animated 
the thirteen colonies of America, their energies 
would not have been wasted in the waging of a 
petty religious persecution, but would have been 
expended in the field against the common enemy. 
What might not a force of 10,000 determined pa- 
triots, in conjunction with Humbert's army, have 
accomplished in the early part of the campaign ? 
Probably an annihilation of Lake's forces. And 



174 FRENCH INVASION OF IRELAND. 

had the rebels done their duty even after the 
French general's ill-advised sojourn at Castlebar, is 
it not fair to as^me that the result of the battle 
of Ballinamuck would have been different ? Even 
though it may be maintained that Humbert's loss 
of time at the village of Cloone practically sealed 
the fate of the French army, and that at its best 
his chance of ultimate success was problematical in 
the extreme, it is certain that the onus of his fail- 
ure rests primarily on the insurgents' shoulders. 
Their cause was a noble one, but they failed to 
grasp its true significance. May the lesson not be 
lost on a future race of patriots ! 



CHAPTER IX. 

Humbert's Career subsequent to his Return from Ireland — His 
Part in the Campaio;n against the Austrians, and the Expedition 
to San Domingo — His Love Intrigue with Pauline Bonaparte — 
Escape to America — Present at the Battle of New Orleans — Ex- 
pedition to Mexico. 



HOUGH the stoiy of Hum- 
bert's descent upon Ireland 
is concluded, there is still 
something to be added re- 
''Lv/'^Hii garding his subsequent ca- 
reer. This would be super- 
fluous were it not that he 
later played an active role 
in the history of the New World, 
and that his name must ever be 
linked with the stirring events that created one 
of its great commonwealths. Fame he never ac- 
quired, but throughout this latter portion of his 
life he displayed qualities of no mean calibre. He 
proved himself a man of courage and ability, lack- 
ing but few of the essentials of greatness. 

After his return to France, Humbert was de- 




176 THE FRENCH INVASION 

tailed to join Massena's army, engaged in opposing 
the Austrians in Switzerland and the Tyrol. The 
situation there was critical for the French., who 
were also menaced on their flanks by a host of 
Russians, under Suvoroff. At the beginning of 
June, 1799, the surroundings of Zurich became the 
theatre of several obstinate engagements between 
Massena and the Austrian general, Hotze, and in 
one of these Humbert received a severe wound. 
He recovered, however, in time to take part in 
the closing battles of the campaign, which termi- 
nated in September with the annihilation of Hotze's 
army and the retreat of Suvoroff. We next hear 
of him as a member of the expedition sent in De- 
cember, 1802, by the First Consul, Napoleon Bona- 
parte, to San Domingo to crush the rebellion of 
the black population of that island. It is notice- 
able that our hero had received no further promo- 
tion in the mean time, and that the commander-in- 
chief, Leclerc, who was Bonaparte's brother-in-law, 
did not at first invest him with a separate com- 
mand. This had its reason. Humbert had been 
one of the opponents of the i8th Brumaire, the 
coup d'etat which practically ended the republican 
era, and he had consequently incurred the displeas- 
ure of the First Consul. Whatever his faults, he 
can never be accused of lukewarmness in the cause 
of liberty. He remained a consistent republican 
throughout. 

It is needless to go into the details of the horrible 



OF IRELAND IN 'g8. 177 

Haytian war of independence, a blot on the history 
of civiHzation. As far as Humbert is concerned, he 
did his duty as a soldier with his usual uncompro- 
mising vigor. To him fell the task of dislodging the 
rebel general, Maurepas, from his position near Go- 
naives, while the other strategic point^i were being 
attacked by three separate divisions under Generals 
Desfourneux, Hardi and Rochambeau. Of these 
difTerent corps, that commanded by Humbert was 
the most perilously placed, and its movements were 
impeded by heavy rainfalls. After some hard but 
indecisive fighting Humbert received recnforce- 
ments under General Desbelles, and the attack on 
the rebels was renewed. In the mean time General 
Leclerc sent another column against the rear of the 
rebel position, and finding himself almost encircled 
by the French, Maurepas at last surrendered to Hum- 
bert and Desbelles upon the condition, held out 
in General Leclerc's proclamation, that he should 
retain his rank. 

Tlie remaining divisions of the French Army were 
equally successful in their various undertakings, so 
that less than two months after the opening of the 
hostilities the rebel chiefs, from Toussaint I'Ouver- 
ture down, declared themselves willing to submit on 
honorable terms. An agreement was accordingly 
entered upon between the opposing armies, which 
might have eventually restored quiet to the island 
had it not been treacherously violated by the 
French commander. The arrest of Toussaint and 

12 



1/8 THE FRENCH INVASION 

his transportation to France drove the blacks to 
desperation, and the war was resumed with unpar- 
alleled barbarity. Decimated by the attacks of the 
black guerillas and the ravages of fever, the French 
forces dwindled down to the mere skeleton of an 
army. The dreadful maladies generated by the 
mephitic atmosphere, resulting from the decompo- 
sition of the thousands of unburied dead, spared 
not even the commander-in-chief. On the night of 
November ist he died, after a prolonged sickness, 
in the arms of his wife, the beautiful Pauline Bona- 
parte, eldest sister of the First Consul. 

Pauline was a woman of fickle disposition. She 
possessed, moreover, the passionate nature of her 
race. Even during her husband's sickness her eyes 
had rested favoringly upon the athletic and graceful 
form of one of the generals of Leclerc's oitourage, 
and when it was decided that she should convey the 
corpse back to France, she selected him as an es- 
cort. This object of her admiration was none other 
than Humbert, and the world can scarcely blame 
him for responding to advances from so distin- 
guished a source. Indeed, Humbert seems to have 
fallen fairly in love. When the couple reached 
their destination he endeavored to secure the pro- 
consul's consent to their marriage. Bonaparte, how 
ever, had no desire for so democratic a brother-in- 
law as Humbert, and fearing lest his veto might be 
disregarded, he exiled the bold applicant to Brit- 
tany. Not satisfied with this, he afterward pre- 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. 1/9 

pared to throw him into prison — a fate Hum- 
bert avoided by making his way to the United 
States. 

Little, if anything, is known of his movements 
auring the first few years of his sojourn in this 
country. The war of 1812 found him actively en- 
gaged on the American side, and at the battle of 
New Orleans, January 8, 18 15, he distinguished him- 
self as the commander of a corps of Creole marks- 
men. One of the peculiar circumstances of the 
event was the coincidence of his finding himself 
on the occasion opposed to one of the very men 
who had contributed to his defeat at Ballinamuck. 
General Packenham, the English commander, had 
formerly been an officer in Lake's army, and had 
narrowly escaped death during that engagement in 
consequence of a premature announcement of the 
French surrender.' 

The renewed taste of war's excitement seems to 
have fired Humbert's blood, and he looked around 
for fresh fields for his martial ambition. His glance 
needed not to wander far. The people of Mexico 
were in open rebellion against Spanish authority. 
From the frontiers of Texas to the extremity of 
Yucatan the spectre of war was pervading the land. 
Alternately victorious and defeated, the insurgents, 
first under Hidalgo and then under Don J. More- 
los, had long defied the best troops of Calleja, the 
bloodthirsty Spanish viceroy. One of the incidents 

^ See page 133. 



l8o THE FRENCH INVASION 

of the war was Don J. M. Toledo's abortive expedi- 
tion for the relief of the struggling patriots. To- 
ledo, who had been a member of the Cortes in 
Spain for Mexico, arrived in the United States at 
the close of the year 1812, and in conjunction with 
Don B. Guiterrez, then at Washington in the capac- 
ity of commissioner from the new Mexican Govern- 
ment, formed a plan for invading the eastern prov- 
inces of New Spain, They engaged some citizens 
of the United States to join the expedition, and set 
out for the Provincias Interns, and having entered 
the Spanish territories were reenforced by some 
guerillas. They obtained some advantages over 
the royalists, and took San Antonio de Bejar, the 
capital of the province of Texas. But they were 
attacked in January, 1813, and completely dispersed 
by Don N. Arredondy, military commander of the 
internal provinces, upon which Toledo made his 
escape to the United States. 

At the time of the conclusion of peace between 
this country and England the situation in Mexico 
was anything but favorable to the cause of liberty. 
A patriot Congress convened at Chilpanzingo, ninety 
miles south of Mexico, had endeavored to revive 
the spirits of the people by offering them a dem- 
ocratic constitution ; but in the end this body of 
representatives, by its lack of accord, only proved 
a hindrance to Morelos' operations in the field. 
When he or any of his generals proposed a military 
plan of action the long discussion which it must 



OF IRELAND IN 'gS. l8l 

undergo in the Congress not only occasioned delay, 
but often defeated the object in view. 

It was at this point that Humbert appeared on 
the scene. He had come in contact with Toledo in 
the city of New Orleans, and eager to join in any 
struggle on behalf of the oppressed, he set about 
to organize an expedition which should help the 
patriot army, then concentrated in Yucatan, out of 
the existing dilemmas. He succeeded in assem- 
bling over one thousand men of all nationalities and 
in chartering a vessel to convey them to the small 
port of El Puente del Rey, situated between Jalapa 
and Vera Cruz. In addition to this force the vessel 
carried a large quantity of arms and ammunition, 
then sorely needed by the insurgents. 

As soon as Morelos learned of the arrival at its 
destination of Humbert's little army, he decided to 
join it with his available forces, and accompanied 
by the Congress. The march of the patriots com- 
menced early in November, 1815, and although the 
royalists hovered around and harassed them con- 
tinually, no general attack was attempted. Never- 
theless, an unforeseen catastrophe prevented their 
junction with Humbert's hardy band. On Novem- 
ber 5th, Morelos. the life and soul of the national 
cause, was surprised and captured at the village of 
Tepecuacilco while covering the retreat of his troops 
with a body of cavalry. The event cast a gloom 
over the Mexican ranks, not alone because the fate 
of their beloved leader was sealed, but because all 



1 82 FRENCH INVASION OF IRELAND. 

felt he could not be replaced. Humbert vainly 
awaited the arrival of his allies in a country un- 
known to him and teeming with foes. He engaged 
the latter on several occasions, and with invariable 
success. He was also fortunate enough to receive 
reenforcements from the Rio del Norte and Nueva 
Santander. All that availed him nothing in the 
end. The utter disintegration of the patriot forces, 
and the advance of the loyalists toward the sea- 
coast, soon placed him in imminent danger of being 
cut off from his only means of retreat. He there- 
fore reluctantly concluded to return to the United 
States. The brave but unfortunate Morelos, on the 
other hand, suffered death some seven weeks after 
his capture. He was shot in the back as a traitor 
at the village of San Cristobal, eighteen miles from 
the capital. 

Humbert took no further part in the sanguinary 
contest, which ended several years later with the 
establishment of Mexican independence. He died 
at New Orleans in February, 1823, passing the 
closing years of his life in comparative obscurity, 
and earning a modest competence as a teacher of 
French and fencing. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



THOMAS PAINE'S LETTER TO THE FRENCH 
DIRECTORY. 

(From the European Magazine, November, 1798, page 353.) 

Citizens, Directors : 

The Irishmen who went with General Humbert, bearing your com- 
mission, have been taken and hanged. Those who have gone on the 
second naval expedition are exposed to the same fate. The follow- 
ing facts have a striking connection with the plan which I hasten to 
present to you. 

General Lee, of the American Army, was taken prisoner by the 
English in 1776 ; they threatened to hang liim. Congress, having no 
prisoners of the same rank, caused six lieutenant-colonels, prisoners, 
to be kept as hostages for him, and to be treated in every event in 
the same manner in which their general might be treated by the 
Enghsh. This conduct produced the desired effect. The general, 
instead of being hanged, was first set at liberty on his own parole, 
and afterward exchanged. 

The Directory, among their prisoners of war in France, have 
many Irish ofhcers who are attached to the British Government, and 
it is just that these Irish officers, bearing English commissions, 
should be kept as hostages for the Irish officers who have French 
commissions. 

In another point of view, our descent ought to be assimilated to 
another descent, and the English officers taken at Ostend ought 
to be retained as hostages for the French officers taken in the 



1 86 APPENDIX. 

descent upon Ireland. It is necessary likewise to observe that for 
mare than a century the Irish have been used to go into the service 
of France, and to take French commissions, and that these commis- 
sions have always been respected by the British Government. The 
Irishmen who went with the expedition have in their favor a custom 
admitted and settled, and they serve under French generals. This 
differs greatly from the Emigrants at Quiberon. The Emigrants 
there were a separate body, acting solely under emigrant officers. 

Thomas Paine. 



II. 

OFFICIAL RETURN OF THE FRENCH FORCES CAP- 
TURED AT BALLINAMUCK. 

General and other officers, 96 ; non-commissioned officers and 
soldiers, 746 ; horses, about 100. N. B. — 96 rebels taken, three of 
them called general officers, by the name of Roach, Blake, and 
Teeling. The enemy in their retreat were compelled to abandon 
nine pieces of cannon, which they had taken in the former actions 
with his Majesty's forces. 

Names of the principal officers of the French forces taken at the 
battle of Ballinamuck, September 8, 179S : 

Humbert, general en chef ; Sarrazin, general de division ; Fon- 
taine, general de brigade ; Laserrure, chef de brigade, attache a I'etat 
major ; Dufour, ditto ; Aulty, chef de batallon ; Demanche, ditto ; 
Toussaint, ditto ; Babin, ditto ; Sibernon, ditto ; Menou, commis- 
saire ordonnateur ; Brillier, commissaire de guerre ; Thibault, payeur; 
Puron, aide-de-camp ; Framaire, ditto ; Moreau, capitaine vague- 
mestre-general ; Ardouin, chef de brigade ; Serve, chef de batallon : 
Hais, ditto ; Mauchaud, ditto ; Brand and Massonet, officiers de 
sante. 

Recapitulation : Sous-officiers, 96 ; grenadiers, 8 ; fusiliers, 440; 
carabiniers, 33 ; chasseurs, 60 ; canonniers, 41 ; officiers, 96. Total, 

844. 

P. Ardouin. 



APPENDIX. 187 

III. 

GENERAL HUMBERT'S LETTER TO THE FRENCH 
MARINE MINISTER. 

Lichfield, 2 Vendemiaire (September 25), 1798. 

Citizens, Directors : 

After having obtained the greatest success and made the arms 
of the French Republic to triumph during my stay in Ireland, I have 
at length been obliged to submit to a superior force of thirty thou- 
sand troops, commanded by Lord Comwallis. 

I am a prisoner of war upon my parole. 

(Signed) Humbert. 



IV. 

GENERAL HUMBERT'S LETTER TO THE BISHOP OF 
KILLALA. 

Dover, Oct. 26, 1798. 

My Lord : 

Being on the point of returning to France, I think it my duty to 
testify to you the extraordinary esteem with which your conduct has 
always inspired me. Since I have had the good fortune of being 
acquainted with you, I have always regretted that the chance of war 
and my duty as a military officer have obliged me, in carrying the 
scourge of war into your neighborhood, to disturb the domestic hap- 
piness which you enjoyed, and of which you are in ever)' respect 
worthy. Too happy am I if, in returning into my country, I can 
flatter myself that I have acquired any claim to your esteem. Inde- 
pendently of other reasons which I have for loving and esteeming 
you, the representations which citizen Charost gives me of all your 
good offices to him and his officers, as well before as after the reduc- 
tion of Killala, will demand forever my esteem and gratitude. 

I entreat you, my lord, to accept my declaration of it, and to im- 
part it to your worthy family. 

I am, with the highest esteem, my lord. 

Your most humble servant, 

Humbert. 



I N L) E X . 



ABEKCRf'MBY, Sir Ralph, his opinion 
nf the English troops in Ireland, 62. 

'■ A la Oaionetfe'^ near Ballina, 65. 

Atrocities of the English and rebels, 
25i 58. 67> yS-g. 1271 135-6, 172. 

Ballina, battle near, 65-7 ; conflicting 
accounts of the battle, 66-7, note; re- 
sults of second battle, 68. 

Ballinamucli, battle of, described, i .2- 
6; slaughter of the Irish, 135-6; 
losses of contestants, 138 ; treatment 
of French prisoners, 138. 

Bantry Bay Expedition, its formidable 
character and unavoidable failure, 
20-1. 

Barrett, Patrick, officer of Irish insur- 
gents, heroically saves lives of Prot 
estants, 156-7. 

Batavian Republic, its great self-sac- 
rifice for the i)rinciples of liberty, 
in equipping expedition for Ireland, 

21. 

Blake. General Richard, Irish patriot, 
captured and hanged at Ballina- 
muck, dies bravely, '136. 

Boudet, Captain, French officer in ex- 
pedition to Ireland, described, 152. 

Castlebar, romantic character of its 
vicinity, 73-4 ; sketch of the tovs'n, 
74-5 ; frequent broils between Eng- 
lish regulars and militia, 75-6 ; illus- 
tration of Protestant pietistic spirit, 
77; strength and position of British 
force, S2-7. Battle of, described, 81- 
og ; defeat of the Irish contingent, 
87-8 : foolish experiment of the 
French, 89 ; their splendid audacity 
at the last charge, Sg ; French and 
English troops compared, 90, note ; 
cowardice of the British, Q2-4 ; fights 
in the town and at the bridge, 94-6 ; 
acts of heroism. 95-8 ; the English 
flight called " the races of Castle- 
bar, " qi; opposite conduct of Lake 
and Hutchinsim, 98 ; losses and re- 
sults, 103-5. E.xcesses of the Irish 



recruits after the battle, 107-9 \ mas- 
sacre of Protestants prevented by 
the French, 108 ; good conduct of 
the French soldiers during the occu- 
pation, 109-10 ; evacuation by the 
French, 118 ; movements preceding 
second attack on it by Irish insur- 
gents, 144-S ; panic of the citizens, 
1.(6; description of the battle, 147-8. 

Chambers, Captain, in English army, 
his courage at Castlebar, 94-7. 

Character of English troops in Ireland, 
62-3. 

Charost, Lieutenant-colonel, in French 
army, sketched, 150-1 ; firmly main- 
tains order at Killala, 152-63 ; re- 
leases persecuted Protestants, 158 ; 
diverts a mob from its villainy, 162-. 
3 ; has narrow escape at Killala, 171; 
is sent prisoner to Dublin, 171. 

Colooney, description of march to, 
121-3 : battle at, 124; orderly retreat 
of the English, 124. 

Connaught, republican government 
for, formed by the French, 112. 

Cornwallis, Lord Lieutenant and com- 
mander-in-chief, denounces the Eng- 
lish force in Ireland, 62-3 ; reorgan- 
izes Lake's defeated army, iig; 
moves against the French, 120 ; his 
generalship against Humbert, 130-1; 
becomes cruel to the Irish patriots, 
141. 

Cowley, Father Owen, a bloodthirsty 
priest, 156-8. 

Crawford, Colonel, enters Castlebar, 
and terrorizes the " President," ij8- 
19 ; harasses the rear of Humbert's 
army, 126-8 ; makes general attack 
and is defeated, 128 ; is captured 
and released at Ballinamuck, 133-5. 

England, her naval power in 1798, 
16-17 ; her blockade of French ports, 
17 ; her tyranny in Ireland, 17-ig : 
humiliating reflections upon her 
power, 83 ; inordinate national van- 
ity of, S4-5. 



IQO 



INDEX. 



Enfjlish oppressions of Ireland, i7-:8 ; 
described by an English nobleman, 
18-19, note ; military barbarities, 
=4-5- 127, 135-6. 

English forces in Ireland, bad charac- 
ter of, 62-3 ; military operations in 
Ireland, during French invasion, 
begun, 63-4 ; engagement near Bal- 
lina, 65-7 ; defeat at Castlebar, 87- 
99; movements after Castlebar, 119- 
21 ; Trench's operations in Con- 
naught, 164-7. 

E.xpeditions to aid Ireland, first, 
French, under Hoche, 19-21 ; sec- 
ond. Dutch or Batavian, 21-2: third, 
under Humbert, see Humbert; 
fourth, captured by British navy. 



Fontaine, Adjutant-General Louis Oc- 
tav-e, his history of the Irish cam- 
paign, 45. 

France, grandest epoch of her history, 
16 ; blockade of her coast by Eng- 
land, 16-17. 

French Revolution, heroism produced 
by, 16. 

French Directory, terms of its alliance 
with Irish patriots, ig; despatches 
expedition to Ireland, 19-20 ; breaks 
its promise regarding another, 23. 

French expeditions to Ireland, motive 
for, 16-17 '• description of first one, 
and why it failed, 20-1 ; Batavian, 
21-2 ; Humbert's, see Humbert ; 
fourth, captured by English navy, 
143- 

French soldiers in Ireland, good be- 
havior of, 50-2, 109-10; proclamation 
to the Irish, 53-4 ; their excellent 
character, 90, note ; distraction and 
pleasure after Castlebar, 105-6 ; pris- 
oners of war at Ballinamuck, their 
treatment, 138 ; conduct on the way 
to Dublin, 13S-9 ; at Liverpool and 
Litchfield, 139. 

Granard, an important point, attacked 
unsuccessfully by the Irish insur- 
gents, 129. 

HocHE, General Lazare, character of, 
20 ; leads unsuccessful expedition to 
Ireland, 19-21. 

Humbert, General Jean-Joseph A., his 
landing at Kilcummin, near Killala, 
27-35 ; first skirmish of his troops, 
33-4 ; his pledge to the Irish people, 
35 ; origin and organization of his 
expedition, 35-6 ; sketch of his early 
life, 36-43 ; personal appearance, 
42-3 ; change in his character, 38 ; 
his conduct of civil war in La Ven- 
due, 40-1 ; his dauntless determina- 
tion, 43 ; his fleet and army, 44 ; his 



proclamation to the Irish, 53-4 ; re- 
ligious difficulties in organizing 
them, 55-9 ; short speech to the 
fierce Catholics; 57 ; why the priests 
aided him, 58-9; English move- 
ments begTjn, 63-4 ; battle near Bal- 
lina, 65-7 ; moves toward Castlebar, 
72 ; has a tedious march, 80 ; size of 
his army at Castlebar, 84 ; his plans 
and movements, 87; battle of Castle- 
bar, 88-99 ; wins by a bold stroke, 
89-91 ; despatches Teeling after the 
British commanders, loo-i; exagger- 
ates to the French Directory, 103 ; 
prevents revenge on the Protestants, 
108 ; makes great mistake by at- 
tempting politics, 1 10- 1 3 ; organizes 
government for Connaught, iii ; 
makes large promises to the Direc- 
tory, 114-15 ; results of dilatory 
policy, 117; begins march to the in- 
terior, 118-21 ; skirmish at Tubber- 
curry, 122 ; battle at Colooney, 124 ; 
praises Col. Vereker, 125 ; turns and 
moves toward Granard, 128; gives a 
blow to the harassing Crawford, 128; 
crosses the Shannon, 129 ; arrival at 
Cloone, 129 ; his purpose defeated 
by too much talk and sleep, 129-30; 
forced to an engagement at Ballina- 
muck, 1 51-2 ; conduct at the battle. 
133-5 ; his life saved by Teeling, 135; 
surrenders, is brought before Lake, 
and sent to Cornwallis, 137 ; thanked 
by clergymen at Litchfield for his 
humanity, 139 ; his efforts to save 
Teeling and the Irish officers, 139-41; 
goes to prison with Teeling, 140 ; 
sent to Dublin and afterward to 
France, 138-40; main reason for his 
failure, 173-4; his career after leav- 
ing Ireland, chapter ix.; fights the 
Austrians, 176; is sent to San Do- 
mingo to fight against liberty, 176-7 ; 
falls in love with Pauline Bonaparte, 
178 ; escapes a prison by fleeing to 
America, 179; fights at battle of New 
Orleans, 179 ; raises expedition to 
aid Mexico, 181 ; returns unsuccess- 
ful to the United States, 182 ; dies 
an American citizen at New Orleans 
in 1823, i8.i. Brilliancy and impor- 
tance of his career in Ireland, pre- 
face ; lesson of the account, preface, 

13-14- 
Hutchinson, John Hely, English mr. 
jorgeneral, moves against the 
French, 63 ; resumes command at 
Castlebar, 81-2; misrepresents to 
Cornwallis, 82, 84. 

Ireland, as a possible ally of the 
French Republic, 17 : brutal treat- 
ment of, by England, 17-8, 24; secret 
societies in, 18 ; Insurrection Act in, 
iS. First expedition in aid of, 19, 21 ; 



INDEX. 



191 



attempt of the Batavian Republic, 
21-2 ; plan of third attempt, 36 ; par- 
tially carried out by Humbert, see 
Humbert. Emissaries of, in France, 
their influence, 24. Insurrection of, 
in 1798, its outbreak, 24 ; weakness 
of Irish character, 111-13. 
Irish insurgents, their ideas and pur- 
poses, 107-8, 115-16, note, 148-0; 
large increase of forces, 117; their 
desertions, 121-2, 127 ; they attack 
Granard, 129 ; are massacred at 
Ballinamuck, 135-6; continue the 
war after surrender of the French, 
144; their malice against Protestants, 
155-9; they fight unsuccessful battles 
at Castlebar, 144 ; and at Scarmore, 
164-5 '• finally defeated with great 
slaughter at Killala, 167-70 ; tried 
by court-martial and hanged, 172; 
reasons for their failure ana destruc- 
tion, 173-4. 

Kerr, Major, commands English at 
Ballina, 65-6. 

Killala, landing place of Humbert, de- 
scribed, 26-7 ; appearance of fleet in 
bay, 27 ; first skirmish at, 33-4 ; rais- 
ing of the green flag at, 49; scene of a 
decisive battle, 167-9 ; Kirkwood, 
magistrate of, 51. 

Kilmaine ("/<> /iraev"). Lieutenant- 
general, an Irishman with assumed 
name, 36. 

Kirkwood, magistrate at Killala, 51 ; 
his house sacked by Irish revolution- 
ists for breach of parole, 51. 

Lake, Gerard, general of an English 
force, commands at Castlebar, 78 ; 
his erroneous opinions of the French, 
78-9; his brutal character, 78-9; 
cowardice at battle of Castlebar, 92, 
98; sent by Cornwallis, with a reor- 
ganized army, to pursue Humbert, 
119-20 ; harasses the French, 126-27; 
his merciless barbarity to the Irish, 
127; forces Humbert to an engage- 
ment, 131 ; massacres the Irish in- 
surgents, 135-6 ; surprised at the 
smallness of his victory, 137. 

MoiRA, Lord, speech in the British 
House of Lords, November 22, 1797, 
on the wrongs of Ireland, 18-19, 
note. 

Moore, John, " President of Con- 
naught," 112; shows great coward- 
ice on the entry into Castlebar of 
Colonel Crawford and his cavalry, 
118-19. 

Napoleon Bonaparte, his desertion 
of the Irish, 17 ; dreams of conquer- 
ing the East, 23. 



O'DowD, Irish patriot, captured and 
hanged, dying bravely, at Ballina- 
muck, 136. 

O'Keon, Henry, "the green-coated 
horseman," 31 ; his daring ride, 
32-^ ; sketch of, 47-8 ; his method of 
convincing the Irish, 70-1 ; leads in- 
surgents against Castlebar, and isde- 
feated, 144 ; aids in saving lives of 
Protestants, 156; with Barrett,attacks 
the British at Scarmore, 165 ; is cap- 
tured at Killala, tried for treason, 
but escapes death, 171. 

Ormond, Earl of, his bravery at Castle- 
bar, 92-3. 

Order of United Irishmen, see United 
Irishmen. 

Paine, Thomas, writes to French Di- 
rectory regarding Irish patriots in 
French army, 142, 185-6, appendix. 

Ponson, Captain, a French officer, de- 
scribed, 151-2 ; single-handed quells 
a crowd of ruffians, 162. 

Proclamation of Liberty to Ireland, 
53-4- 

RELiGiotis difficulties of the French in 
Ireland, 55-9 ; Humbert's effective 
little speech at Killala, 57 ; bad mo- 
tives of the parish priests, 58-9 ; 
peculiar position of the French, 59- 
60 ; fickleness of recruits, 65 ; efforts 
to conciliate, 69-71. 

Revolution, American, effects of, in 
Europe, 15. 

Sarrazin, General, sketch of, 44-5 ; 
skirmish with and flight of British 
at Ballina, 55 ; leads the attack near 
Ballina, 65 ; honors an Irish martyr, 
6q ; at Castlebar, 87-8, 91 ; deserts 
Humbert at Ballinamuck, 132-3. 

Scarmore, battle at, and defeat of 
rebels by Lord Portarlington, 164. 

Secret societies in Ireland, 1S-19. 

Shortall, English artillery captain, 
does efficient service at Castlebar, 
88 ; makes good use of his fists, 91. 

Sligo, panic of inhabitants in, 125-6. 

Stock, Reverend Joseph, Bishop of 
Killala, describes Humbert, 42 ; testi- 
mony to the many excellent qualities 
of the French soldiery, 90, note ; 
saves life of an Irish patriot, 171 ; 
receives letter from Humbert, 187, 
appendix. 

Superstitions of Catholics and Protes- 
tants, 70-1, 77, 112. 

Teeling, Bartholomew, Irish patriot 
in French army, sketch of, 46-7 ; ad- 
venture at Castlebar, 100-3 ; saves 
Humbert's life at Ballinamuck, 134-5; 
taken as a rebel by Lake, 140 ; is ac- 
companied to prison by Humbert, 



192 



INDEX. 



who tries to save him, 140 ; tried by 
court-martial at Dublin, 141 ; partic- 
ulars of his execution. 142. 

Tone, Matthew, Irish patriot in 
French army, taken at Ballinamuck, 
tried and executed, 141-2. 

Tone, Theobald Wolfe. Irish patriot, 
also falls a victim to the English, 

Trench, general in English army, 161 ; 
emissaries sent to him entreat- 
ing fair treatment of prisoners, 161 ; 
assures fair treatment of prisoners, 
163 : arrives at Castlebar and plans 
future movements, 164 ; marches to 
Crossmalina, 165 ; skirmish with the 
rebels, 166 ; joins Lord Portarling- 
ton at Ballina, 166: his battle with 
rebels at Killala, 167-g. 

True, French officer, described, 152 ; 
allows insurgents to persecute Prot- 
estants, 156. 



Urquhart, Captain, English com- 
mander at Castlebar, posts his forces 
advantageously for the defence of 
the town on second attack, 147. 

United Irishmen, Order of, 18 ; its alli- 
ance with the French Directory, 19 ; 
its disappointments, 21-23 ; thwarts 
English diplomacy, 24 ; is crushed 
out by the English military, 25. 

Verkker, Colonel Charles, English 
commandant at Sligo, has a battle 
with Humbert.' at Colooney, 124 ; 
wins the admiration of Humbert, 125. 

Walsh, a revolutionist hanged by the 
British, 67: his corpse kissed by Sar- 
razin, 6g ; incongruous scenes at his 
funeral, 70. 

" War of plunder and massacre," on 
the part of England, so described by 
Cornwallis, 63. 




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